#lock the mage of cards

[sonicfanj]

Lock: the Mage of Cards - Prologue

The following is a work of fan fiction based on Sega Sammy Holding’s Sonic the Hedgehog™. by Joshua D. Tarwater and is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.* *SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS retains full rights over the Sonic the Hedgehog™ intellectual property and can terminate or take control of this work at any time.

Not all stories start from their beginnings. If it were so, then the tale of Lock, the Mage of Cards, would have begun some time before the mage first donned her distinctive purple dress. The beginning of her tale would have been found on some distant star in a past long forgotten, when a people lost their home to a great evil they would lead to this star, Lock’s home. An evil that she joined Sonic the Hedgehog in defeating when he inherited the battle of the Starfall Ancients. A battle when Lock first truly realized that her potential for magic far exceeded the beliefs of the struggling to remember who she really was Amy Rose. But while the beginning of the tale of Lock, the start of her story came after that battle, when Amy Rose sought out a means to train herself in the use of magic as part of her journey of self-refinement. And so it was in a waking nightmare that the adventures of Lock began.

The nightmare that Amy woke to was one of many sensations. Several of them were very wrong, but confusion and the darkness she woke to were at the forefront of her mind.

‘Ugh… what? What happened?’

The dazed thoughts of the girl were not particularly useful, but she could hardly collect her thoughts from the lingering trappings of sleep. A sleep Amy’s every instinct told her was not natural or welcomed. Much as she wanted to try and collect her thoughts on her instincts, her growing consciousness was growing equally distracted by the sensation of a delicate sheet of some kind against her face. She desired to pull it away, but her arms did not respond to her desires, and she grew frustrated. Turning her frustration to energy, Amy sat up as she swung her hips and waist in tandem.

‘Awah~!!’ the thought came rather than escaped as Amy discovered several problems that accompanied her upward swing. The most notable of these was her difficulty balancing as she could not extend her tail to counter her movement. ‘Eh~! Really! What’s happening!’

Under most circumstances, Amy would have voiced her frustrations and confusion, but she could not open her mouth and her voice refused to come out for even so much as a whimper. As her arms were still refusing to respond to her desires, Amy’s self-examination had to start with her unresponsive tail. Naturally, as it was unresponsive, her next choice of focus were her legs. Fortunately, at least at her hips, her legs responded, though they remained as unresponsive as her arms and tail from her knees down. Still, she could at least feel them all the way to her enclosed toes awkwardly flopping against the ground. It was not much movement however as something kept her thighs fast together, and the familiar feeling of tights against another fabric assured Amy she was likely wearing a mermaid style dress. The attire was a far cry from her usual red dress, but also the jumpstart her mind needed to remember what had happened.

‘That’s right, I was looking for a magic cloak to help me get better at using magic! The dumb thing wrapped me up, didn’t it!’

Whether she was right or not, Amy fully remembered that her current predicament began when she followed rumors of a magic cloak that could help the wearer train in magic. She was not expecting to have to battle it should she find it and was caught off guard when it engulfed her and stole her consciousness. Fully awake now though, Amy struggled to break free but found her impressive physical abilities were no match for the magical garment. Or more accurately cursed. But the potential for the garment being cursed did not spring to mind as her struggles revealed something far more chilling.

‘Eh… is my… is my tail gone…?’

It was not a question that took a lot to answer, and Amy’s adrenaline kept her panic at bay as she realized that she had indeed lost her tail, fully explaining the loss of balance she was dealing with. The absence of her tail, however, left her with a grim thought and she immediately fell onto her side. Her shoulder did not absorb the impact, the upper extreme of her ribs usually protected by the joint instead directly meeting the cold, hard surface she fell onto.

‘It’s… it’s GONE!!’ Amy’s thoughts exploded at the revelation of her missing limb, and she demonstrated impressive trunk strength as she flipped herself over and smashed her other armless side into the ground. ‘No way! They’re both gone!! So… I’m not tied up… it’s just that THIS STUPID CLOAK STOLE MY ARMS AND TAIL!!’

Shocked as Amy was, her anger overrode her situation and she struggled to rip the cloak with her legs so at least the mermaid dress form it had taken would not hamper her movements. It was futile as again the magic that the cloak was made of easily resisted her strength, and the useless state of her legs below her knees made any success meaningless.

‘It’s okay Amy,’ she tried to assure herself as she lay down on her back and stared up at the darkness beyond the cloth resting against her face. ‘You got into this mess so you can get out of it too. Even if you have to crawl like a worm to get help.’

The prospect was humiliating, but Amy had for a while forgotten why she had sought out the cloak that had transformed her into her currently helpless seeming state. Focusing solely on her physical abilities, she attempted to address her situation, only to realize the futility of any action in the dark.

‘I hope I haven’t gone blind too,’ Amy’s desperate whimper echoed within her own head, unable to escape. Very much like her as she felt a weight of some kind land on her chest and stare at her. ‘I’m really in trouble, aren’t I…?’

The terror of her situation, overwhelming as it was, did not assure the end of the pink hedgehog girl. She was, if anything, resilient and optimistic, full of more energy even in a state like this than most people could imagine exhibiting in a lifetime. Beyond that, she had sought out the transformative cloak to improve her ability to wield magic. That combination would be enough to allow her to save herself to a degree, and the evidence of her survival arrived at the home of the Rabbit family.

“Mother!” a young rabbit girl cheerfully cried out as she skipped into the living room of the Rabbit family home. She was carrying an envelope above her head and waved it enthusiastically. It’s a letter from Amy!”

“Is that so, Cream?” Vanilla the Rabbit asked with a calm demeanor as she wiped her hands on her apron and moved to intercept her excited daughter.

It had been some time since they had heard from Amy who had hurried off on some adventure or another after inviting Cream along to at least see her off. Something had happened to her on her last adventure with world famous hero and adventurer, Sonic the Hedgehog, and she was eager to share a story about a pair of lovers whose love transcended time as well as see to refining herself into a far better version of herself. Vanilla had offered to help Amy with any such refinements, but the hedgehog girl wouldn’t hear of it, claiming it was something she had to do for herself. Not one to hold back the girl who gleefully chased after Sonic and his adventures, Vanilla did not push the matter. However, the lack of communication from Amy in a fair while had made Cream start to worry, and though Vanilla was sure Amy was fine, seeing Cream beam at a letter from her best friend brought a smile to the mother rabbit’s face.

“Shall I read it Cream?” Vanilla offered as she took a seat in her favorite chair with her daughter scrambling into her lap.

“Yes please, Mother!” Cream requested excitedly as the family chao, Cheese and Chocola drifted over on curious wings.

“Very well,” Vanilla allowed herself a chuckle as she accepted the envelope from Cream and opened up. “Oh my!”

“What’s the matter Mother?” Cream asked at the surprise her mother expressed while turning through the pages of the letter.

“I’m not quite sure Cream, but it would seem that Amy forgot to actually write anything in her excitement.”

Amy Rose was an excitable girl on the cusp of being a young woman and it would be no surprise if she had managed something so silly. Cream, however, did not look convinced as Vanilla took note of the envelope the blank paper had arrived in.

“My, there isn’t even anything on the envelope. However did the delivery person know to bring it here?”

“Mother, I don’t understand,” Cream confessed her confusion as she looked back at her befuddled mother. “Our address is right on the letter, and I can recognize Amy’s handwriting from here.”

“Wha–?” Vanilla asked, growing even more confused. “I don’t believe that my eyes are going bad.”

A moment of unusual silence punctuated the confusion of the Rabbit family and Vanila could not be sure that Cream wasn’t making the whole thing up. Not wanting to upset her daughter and having a funny feeling she couldn’t quite place, she decided instead of chastising her daughter to hand her the letter. “Perhaps you can read Amy’s letter for us instead Cream.”

“Are you sure?’ Cream questioned with a worried look for her mother.

Vanilla offered Cream a reassuring smile as she assured her daughter, “Of course. It’s for you after all.”

“Okay!” Cream nodded her head and smiled brightly back at her mother before reading the letter in front of her.

~Hi Cream!~ The letter began cheerfully enough and brought an air of calm to the young rabbit that Vanilla hadn’t seen in some time.

‘Perhaps it really is best to let her work herself through it.’

“I’m so sorry I haven’t been in touch,” Cream continued reading the letter aloud, oblivious to her mother’s thoughts and concerns.

~But you wouldn’t believe the mess I’ve landed myself into this time! I mean, I’ve been in some bad spots before, but I was sure that after what happened to me on the Starfall Islands that nothing could surprise me. I was so~ wrong! I bet you’d be surprised to, but just that I wrote this letter with magic should be surprising enough.~

“Magic?” Vanilla expressed her curiosity with a tilt of her head.

“That’s what Amy says,” Cream insisted, a hint of her mother’s disbelief wedging its way into her consciousness and twisting her tone to something more forceful.

“I actually hope it works and that I’m not the only one who can see it,” Cream continued reading the letter, the words seeming a direct challenge to Vanilla’s disbelief.

~It’d be such a waste too since I get so tired using magic. It’s so funny too since I normally have so much energy, but using magic really takes it out of me right now. I’m getting better with some of the things I can use it for, but the less familiar I am with using magic the more exhausting it is and the easier I fall asleep. I’ve been falling asleep at the most inconvenient of times and I’m probably going to end up falling asleep on the floor as soon as I finish. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine. A little sleep is all I need, and it’s not like I have a choice. It’s too complicated using magic to manipulate a pen and my handwriting looks dreadful. And I tire myself out faster that way too. Ooh~! It’d be so much easier if I had my–~

“Cream, what’s the matter?” Vanilla prodded her daughter as Cream came to a trembling halt in her reading. A look of utter dread had settled onto her features and tears were welling in her eyes at whatever it was she saw on the blank paper.

“I-it’s Amy, Mother,” Cream was on the verge of crying and could barely control herself. “She lost her arms!!”

~I hope that doesn’t scare you too much Cream. I’m not sure what happened, but I really am alright. I can’t use my hammer for more than a seat right now, but that’s not a bad thing since using magic to move around is pretty tiring too and it’s better than sitting on the ground. Don’t worry though Cream, I still have my legs at least. At least I’m sure I do. I can feel this cloak pressing them together and my feet are sticking out the bottom where it parts.

~Oh right, the cloak! Everything will make a lot more sense if I explain that first.

~Well, while I was on the Starfall Islands I kind of stumbled upon the idea that I might be a lot better at magic than I would have ever guessed, so when I heard rumors of a way to train more efficiently, I ran headlong after it. I’m supposed to be trying to refine myself, yet here I am running straight into trouble as always. And it’s so much too. You see Cream, I found this really pretty purple cloak with a stary sky pattern at the bottom, but when I touched it, it wrapped me up and I blacked out. When I woke up It was wrapped around me so tight there was no sign of my arms or that it ever was a cloak rather than a dress. It’s collar totally wrapped around the bottom of my head too and covered up my mouth. I can’t say anything, and my voice isn’t coming out either.

~Actually, now that I think about it, just like my arms I don’t actually feel my mouth. Hold on, let me just check…~

“It’s alright Cream,” Vanilla found herself comforting Cream for a second time as Amy’s letter detailed her coming to the realization that despite her face being full, she seemed to lack a mouth of any kind and had no real way to check since she seemed to have been deprived of her tongue and lips in addition to any jaw functionality. Unpleasant as it was to read, Vanilla had more luck calming Cream down this time as there was no nasty spat between the mother and daughter as had happened the first time. Vanilla’s doubt and Amy’s lacking arms was too much and when she chastised her daughter Cream’s emotions and terror at Amy’s condition revealed that the girl’s emotions were anything but an act.

“But I will have to have a stern word with Amy when next she visits,” Vanilla spoke aside to her comforting of her daughter. “I have no doubt that Amy is quite overwhelmed herself by her situation, but she forgets that Cream is still so young and not at all prepared for such awful stories.”

~It’s a good thing I figured out how to use magic to feed myself. That was the scariest part of this whole adventure. I really thought I was going to die until I figured it out. But it’s not satisfying at all, and I can’t wait until I figure this all out and can enjoy one of Vanilla’s homecooked meals with you again. Even if I could actually eat though, it wouldn’t be good to visit since this silly cloak grows really dangerous giant thorns anytime anyone gets close. I feel like a little kid who can’t keep her spines down!~

“What’s wrong this time Cream?” Vanilla asked as Cream paused, her tone of voice turning confused as she read Amy’s letter.

“I don’t understand mother, doesn’t Amy use that super hair relaxer because she can’t get her spines to cooperate?” Cream asked as she looked back at Vanilla.

Vanilla donned a strained smile as she tried not to let her daughter know that her words would have stabbed Amy deep had she heard them. She could not dispute her daughter’s blunt observation however as the Rabbit family home had become home to more than one bottle of the product in question due to Amy’s frequent stays. And there was no doubt that Amy loved the product as Vanilla had caught her on more than one occasion fretting dramatically over what she would do if they ever stopped making it. She both wanted to look cute for Sonic no less not stab him by accident. The super hair relaxer made her quite confident with the idea of being held in Sonic’s arms snuggly and her silly daydreams would quickly get the better of her.

‘Still, sometimes I wonder if Amy is ashamed of being a hedgehog,’ Vanilla allowed her thoughts to wander a moment. ‘She seems to reject her own nature at every opportunity, and it couldn’t possibly be healthy for her. Perhaps there is still some of this refinement that she seeks that I can help her with after all.’

~That’s really the big problem however,~ Amy’s letter continued, ~is just that I think this cloak really was what I was looking for. Due to all the curses on it I’m completely dependent on magic for everything. Eating, moving, writing a letter, and probably a lot more I haven’t figured out yet.

~It’s just so hard sometimes. I haven’t figured out how to talk with anyone and the veil that showed up with this weird transformation doesn’t seem to let anyone see my face, though I can see them just fine. The hat that came with it isn’t much help either. It’s surprisingly alive, and I think it’s supposed to help me, but all it ever seems to do is pull me into more trouble and get itself into nothing but trouble. Maybe it’s cursed too. The weird Ring-shaped locks that are all over me are on it too. At least two of them to go with the five on me. I’m sure if I can find the keys for them, I can get free and return back to normal, but I’m actually kind of scared to go looking for them.

~The only hint I think I have to them is this weird red string coming out of the keyhole of the Ring on my chest. I think if I follow it, it might lead me to the keys, but you know, whenever I look at it twirling around me, I can’t help but think of the Red String of Fate that ties me and Sonic together. I don’t want to follow it straight to Sonic. I’m not ready to see him yet. I’m supposed to be a lot more refined when I see him, not in a pitiful state like this. So, I think I’ll continue my adventures like this for a while longer and keep getting better at magic until I can find ways around these awful curses that have taken most of my ability to use my body away from me. I’ll try to get better at writing letters too, so you don’t have to worry. Though, I’ve spotted people taking my picture, though not always before this hat goes after them, so if you look up my appearance on the net with Gemerl’s help maybe you’ll see me in this silly dress that has me feeling like a mermaid. Ooh~! I don’t care how pretty it looks, everyone is complimenting it and not me! It’s not even my style!~

“It really is pretty!” Cream breathed a wow sometime later after Vanilla had managed to contact Tails who with Gemerl’s eyes acting as a projector had a number of photos on a wall in the Rabbit family home.

Just like it had been described in Amy’s letter, a girl in a purple mermaid style dress which had its top obscured by a veil adorned the wall several times over. The stary night appearance of the bottom of her dress which flared out from just after a slit began in the dress was shared by the flats that she wore on her feet as well as the underside of the purple witch’s hat that appeared to be attacking the photographer in many of the pictures. In a few of those the purple flat cap atop the girl’s head that the veil was attached to along with a decorative gold chain and two large purple gems hanging from it like earrings was visible. But any defining features were absent save the Ring-shaped locks about her. One per foot, another dangling from the tip of the hat joined by a tiny one on the hatband, the one on her chest and two floating in the air at her sides where her arms would have once dangled. Tails wasn’t sure if he should feel sick to his stomach seeing his good friend like this or just relieved that she seemed okay regardless of her situation. Gemerl, lacking the emotional context of the horror of the scene stated its final conclusion flatly.

“Ninety-seven percent probability of being Amy Rose,” the android stated and made Tails jump.

“What? Really? How can you be sure? There isn’t anything we can use to identify her!”

“Incorrect,” Gemerl, stated. “Despite the matching appearance to her veil and dress, her tights are not opaque based on the difference in lighting per photograph.”

“Of course!” Tails exclaimed and busily set to work on his Miles Electric table. “If you account for material stretch and filter out the color range… There! You get the exact shade of pink of Amy’s fur!”

“Which can be DNA matched to within acceptable parameters for that shade combined with her height and figure to determine a 97 percent match. However, a margin of error must be accounted for as in addition to her missing appendages, she seems to have lost around an additional 17% of her body weight.”

“That’s horrible!” Cream gasped! “She’s withering away!”

“Actually, I think that’s normal for Amy,” Tails laughed and scratched at the back of head. “She’ll go on unhealthy diets at the drop of a hat and shrivel up in no time. If she has to use magic to sustain herself…”

Tails didn’t finish the thought as the word magic didn’t feel right in his mouth. “I guess I couldn’t really say,” Tails sighed. “I’m more of a tech guy and haven’t encountered magic before like Sonic has.”

“But we can’t get Mr. Sonic involved, Cream insisted. “Amy begged us not to.” Like Tails, Cream was aware of Sonic’s stories of being whisked away to worlds of magic and could not argue that he would be more help than any of them.

“I don’t believe it’s just Mr. Sonic,” Vanilla added, even as she made no attempt to hide the concern in her voice for Amy. She was not the only one who was so offput by Amy’s appearance, but she was the one who also had to speak up as the adult on Amy’s behalf. “She said she wants to refine herself, and everything in that letter implies this terrible curse she’s under is helping her do just that. It’s normal to worry for her but…”

“You’re right," Tails agreed, though he looked away and clenched his fist. “We all agreed we’d spend time doing our own thing and getting our own feet under us. It’s just…”

“But she’s Amy, Tails,“ Vanilla assured the two-tailed fox boy who was Sonic’s frequent companion. “She took the time to write Cream, to assure her that she was fine, so we know that she is.”

“Yeah…,” Tails attempted a smile as he looked at the pictures still projected by Gemerl’s eyes. Not seeing Amy’s smile in kind though was not comforting and he could only wonder where Cream found the faith in her friend to stand so resolute as she too looked at the pictures of who they all believed to be the hedgehog girl.

And they were not wrong.

Sunlight near blinded Amy as the purple witch’s hat suddenly blew off of her face where she had fallen asleep in the back of an open bed truck hauling hay.

‘I guess this is where today’s adventure begins.’ Arching her back to stretch out what muscles she had control over without magic, Amy only lingered in the hay a moment longer. Soon, she was airborne and twirling like an acrobat, or as close an approximation as possible dressed as she was, a number of the fortune cards she kept with her twirling around her. As she descended and landed on her feet, only one did not disappear and continued to swirl around her allowing her to stand at all.

Noticing the hat that was her only company stuck in a tree, Amy sighed through her nose. ‘You really are helpless.’

Disapproving as her thoughts were, Amy’s green eyes were smiling behind her veil. She had left the truck in a rather perilous stretch of a mountain path, and it would take everything she knew of magic and likely more to see herself back to safety.

‘Hee-hee,’ she laughed to herself in her thoughts. ‘I think I’m finally understanding why you’re always looking for ways to challenge yourself Sonic.

‘Just you wait Sonic! When I get out of this mess, there’s no way you’ll recognize me with how much I’ve grown. I just know you’ll regret it!’

Though her tone to herself was confident, Amy still spied a nervous glance at the red thread entwined around her in the air. The end opposite of where it emerged from the magical keyhole on her chest was what she primarily sought, and when she confirmed where it was pointing, she promptly traveled in the opposite direction, a handful of fortune cards appearing in orbit around her to help her levitate along. Her path was not in the service of helping the hat that followed her however and it had to rescue itself to chase after her. Of little surprise to Amy, it was not so sluggish in its self-rescue attempt as to not be able to send the hedgehog girl tumbling into more trouble and her next adventure. One she hoped would steer her clear of Sonic for a while longer. However, there were some events in life that were unavoidable, such as the necessity of an umbrella to stay dry in the rain.

Even in light rain making use of an umbrella was ever advisable. Most people about in the isolated mountain village that Amy found herself in did exactly that as they scurried about under the dampening gray skies. Holding an umbrella in hand was impossible for Amy as she sat on an iron bench. A lack of arms made that task unfavorably difficult.

Despite her purple attire, especially the witch’s hat upon her crown, Amy did not stick out in the least. Her invisibility was of little concern to her at that moment. Her current situation was the result of a curse born from the dress she wore. Rather, the cloak that had fused itself shut to her and did things unknown to her arms and tail. Her mouth fared no better, its position hidden behind where the cloak’s collar had completely obscured her muzzle save her nose. It was completely absent as far as she could tell due to a lack of any feeling or even a sense of tongue to feel around for it. Her lips were as absent, and her voice no longer existed. Communication and even movement were impossible for her under normal circumstances due to the curses affiliated with each of the Keyhole Rings adorning her and it was consuming her thoughts. But not fully.

Despite the curses of the Rings on her feet stealing away her use of her legs, Amy could still at least attempt to move her thighs, torso, and neck. Her situation was not hopeless however, even as that rainy morning’s attempts to move her thighs barely managed a nigh fused rubbing together of her upper legs just due to the tightness with which the cloak had fused to her. Even knowing what she should be doing, she did not give up on her physical abilities.

‘Use a little magic to try and help out on the Starfall Islands and get it into your head that you can learn to really use it,” Amy’s thoughts still took umbrage against her own actions. But her thoughts did not give credit to her desire to refine herself after the events on those untouched islands where a world ending entity once was sealed. But she did not dwell on her dissatisfaction either, instead putting every ounce of effort she could into working what leg muscles she could.

‘C’mon Amy, you may be getting better at using the same tricks you did on Ouranos, but you can’t give up on using your body either. It wouldn’t do me any good to get out of this mess and not be able to use it without magic either. If that happened, I’d be better off just staying like this.’

Her thoughts were born of a frustration that had been plaguing her for longer than she could figure out in that moment. ‘How long has it been anyway? I think I might actually be forgetting what it even felt like to have arms!’

A bit of panic settling in, Amy looked up and watched the villagers going about their morning, putting their hands and arms to any number of uses. Holding umbrellas and bicycle handles, taking hold of groceries and exchanging goods, giving handshakes and hugs. Watching a couple embrace caused a sharp pain to course through Amy’s body that she winced at with her all. Her eyes started to water, and she had to keep from sniffling so as not to compromise her ability to breathe. ‘How long has it been since I talked to anyone, no less shared a hug?’

Trying to imagine reaching out with the arms she once had to hug someone, Amy’s efforts were met with the sudden appearance of the last two of the seven Keyhole Rings that adorned her body. These two floated in the air at her sides where her arms would have been, and for a moment she stared at them in wide-eyed surprise.

‘Did they disappear? When did that happen!’

Her emotions betraying her control of what magic she had managed to learn, one of Amy’s fortune cards answered her distress and appeared from thin air, swirling around her, and causing her to jump to her feet. The motion dislodged the witch’s hat, but Amy hardly cared for that as her sudden jump required her to actively control the spell that summoned the card to keep her hovering just a few centimeters off the ground before her curse disabled feet proved useless and left her to fall. It might have been better at that moment she thought to herself though as her action combined with her unobserved state put her on a crash course with an oblivious passerby. The collision itself would have bothered her, but she could not allow it as the cloak would not either and she saw the first thorn start to grow from it that prevented her from even making physical contact with others.

Not allowing it to happen, Amy summoned another fortune card and threw herself backwards onto the bench. She miscalculated the amount of magic she needed and banged her head loudly on the backrest. Her eyes started to water as her vision blurred and her ears rang, but she still pleaded for the safety of the villager.

‘Just keep walking.’

Amy’s thoughts naturally went unheard, but the banging of her skull was an entirely different matter and the hapless passerby stopped to see what the sound was. They saw nothing, however, as Amy focused on keeping herself invisible, a spell that came to her strangely naturally. It also meant that they did not see the lethally long thorns that had grown from the cloak, more continuing to stretch out as Amy struggled to wriggle down the bench and away from the villager. Yet, she could see, even as far down as the flaring end of the cloak, more thorns stretching out of the fabric towards the threat to her isolation. Before anything terrible could happen though, with a shrug the villager continued walking and Amy sighed heavily through her nose as she watched the thorns recede back into the rest of the cloak, making their appearance seem as unlikely as the sun in the night sky.

‘That was too close.’

Sitting back up, Amy sighed again as the witch’s hat suddenly plopped itself back upon her head. Amy paid it hardly any heed though as she leaned back, even as it slid down and into her eyes. She had no control over it, and as far as she could tell it was hapless beyond its ability to always find its way back onto her head.

‘It’s not like I can just let you go either,’ Amy directed her thoughts towards the hat. ‘Two of the Keyhole Rings are on you and if I don’t get them unlocked, I won’t break all of the curses. Though, I wonder if you’re what stole my mouth or the Ring on my chest.’

Looking down at her chest, Amy’s attention did not linger on the Keyhole Ring for long. Instead, it was the red thread that emerged from it that took hold of attention. ‘The red thread of fate…’

While there were many meanings to that phrase, to a hopeless romantic like Amy it meant that on the other end was her destined lover. It was an easy belief to have considering the origin of the end that touched her was above her heart, but she could not see the other end. The string simply faded off, though she had noted that it did surely point somewhere and moved on its own. This simply reinforced her belief though that on the other end was Sonic the Hedgehog, as she had been once told by her fortune cards that the two were destined.

‘It’s only right that Sonic would hold the key to my heart,’ Amy mused and swooned at the idea of being freed by Sonic before shaking her head violently.

‘No, no, no Amy! You can’t go see Sonic like this. You’re anything but more refined. You’re just a mess right now and Sonic getting involved could be disastrous for him. You’re dealing with curses after all you dummy!’

She would have clapped her face between her hands if she still had them, but instead had to deal with her mounting frustration at her helplessness. Her helplessness and worsening loneliness.

‘Maybe I should try writing Cream again,’ Amy contemplated as she absently summoned a fortune card to take her to her feet once more. ‘I don’t know if she can even see the words I cast onto the paper but writing her helps me feel less lonely and I could use the company thinking about her brings.’

Her mind made up on her next course of action, Amy allowed her body to be pulled through the air by the fortune card that orbited her. Hearing a familiar voice though stopped her in her tracks.

“Come on boys!” The rambunctiously loud voice of Vector the Crocodile, head of the Chaotix Detective agency, ordered the ninja dressed purple chameleon and pilot hat wearing bee that accompanied him. “We can’t be getting distracted by the local specialties! We’re in the middle of a job.”

“Say’s the one stopping at every food stall in town,” the chameleon countered.

“Come on, Espio,” Vector attempted to plead and bargain as he shifted the blame. “Charmy’s been wanting to try the sweets and it’s not like I can say no to him.”

“Yeah!” Charmy chipped in excitedly. “The sweets here are really good and you’re missing out!”

“Are we not on a case?” Espio inquired with heavy exasperation.

‘The Chaotix?! Why are they here?!’

Surprised was putting it lightly at how shocked Amy was to see the detectives. They normally took on small jobs that did not see them far from their office in Central City, so appearing in a remote mountain village was anything but expected. It was to a degree that it was alarming, and Amy’s thoughts began to race.

‘They’re not looking for me, right? Would Cream or Vanilla have asked them to? No. Maybe. But I asked not to be helped. I’m supposed to be refining myself, and learning to use magic so I can find the keys to undo these locks will definitely be part of that. But if they find me and interrupt my journey. Well, no, they shouldn’t be able to, I can turn invisible via magic and even Espio shouldn’t be able to find me. But what if they are just passing through? It wouldn’t hurt to say hi, right? Augh! What are you thinking Amy! You don’t have a mouth or any arms to say hi with! And it’s not like they can see it’s you in here! You’d just confuse them if you went up to them like this! And what if they are here because Cream and Vanilla don’t think you can handle this! You’d be throwing in the towel just to say hi when you can’t! That’s one thing I can’t do! I won’t give up just because I want to actually be recognized by someone and not feel so lonely! Even if I’m really, really, lonely!’

The conflict in Amy’s head was revolving and it seemed unlikely that she could make up her mind on her own. Yet, despite the odds she did reach a decision.

‘Ooh~! What can it hurt! You can always just run away if things don’t work out!’

Her mind finally made up, Amy braced herself for anything and nodded her head with fierce determination.

‘Eh?’

As she looked up, Amy paused and took in the scene around her. The rain had long stopped, and the parting clouds revealed that the sun had moved to kiss the horizon on its way to its nightly slumber. There was no sign of the Chaotix, and the villagers were well on their way to preparing for the evening themselves.

‘Wait…,’ Amy weakly pleaded as her stomach rumbled at her, a consequence of the whole day passing and using magic to keep herself upright. ‘That’s not fair…’

Shaken by her indecision paralyzing her for an entire day, Amy tried to reach out to where she had seen Vector, Espio, and Charmy. Again, the Keyhole Rings at her sides appeared, serving as a cruel reminder of the curse that took her arms.

‘Stop it,’ Amy begged, but the Rings simply persisted until she gave up her attempt to reach to where none she knew stood. Then, they disappeared as surely as her arms and the memories of what it actually felt like to have them.

A tear fell to the ground from under Amy’s veil, followed by another and another, but no wailing to free her heart from the barbed wire pain that entangled it. The need to have her heart freed of its pain though gave her pause and Amy watched the red string that swirled in the air around her.

She knew better than to give in to that desire. Seeking Sonic was the worst possible thing she could do. If he saw her like this, it could result in the absolute worst outcome. The thoughts of the Koco whose love story she watched come to an end on the Starfall Islands and set her on her path of self-refinement flooded her mind as their reckless end very well threatened to be a foretelling of her and Sonic’s own if she did not refine herself. Yet the excessive sleep she needed to recover from using her magic, nor the dread of absorbing nutrients from her environment via magic, combined with that knowledge prevented Sonic the Hedgehog from standing across from the cursed mage in a clearing in some distant wood.

“What?” Sonic asked in surprise as the purple clad mage appeared after a flash of lightning. The ominous, almost threatening visage put Sonic on guard as the rain came thundering down.

“Is there something I can do for you?’ Sonic asked warily, rubbing the underside of his nose with his pointer finger as he felt a sneeze coming on that he was certain was warning him of danger rather than his hay fever. Especially in the violent downpour that was turning the ground quickly to mud underfoot.

Naturally, Amy could not respond, she could do nothing more than stare at Sonic as her heart absolutely screamed in anguish, paralyzing her where her orbiting fortune card kept her aloft. In the darkness brought on by the storm Sonic could not help but notice the magically alight card.

“Wait a minute,” Sonic muttered as he noticed the design on the back of the card and recognized it almost immediately.

The familiarity of the card drew Sonic to check for other familiar features. There was not much facing the nearly fully covered mage before him, but in the downpour the witch’s hat upon their crown had its brim forced down revealing the pink-furred hedgehog ears that escaped through the holes in its sides. Those ears in combination with the fortune card all but assured Sonic who was standing before him, but before he could seek clarification, he noted the red string that was pointing directly at his left pinky finger and that the mage before him had no arms. Faced with this additional information, the tone of his question changed dramatically.

“Amy?”

As her name left his lips, the curse on the veil that hid Amy’s eyes from the world failed before Sonic. Her distraught green eyes became readily visible to him, the force of the rain no longer being enough to obscure how violently she was trembling from head to toe. Only the tears that drenched her face were hidden still by the rain.

“Amy!” Sonic repeated and took a firm step forward. “What happened!”

In the next moment, too many things happened. Knowing what the cloak would do to Sonic if he approached her terrified Amy and she attempted to retreat from Sonic’s sudden approach. But her heart completely betrayed her and the reality of Sonic reaching out for her was enough to break even her absent-minded concentration and her fortune card vanished leaving her to fall backwards into the mud. Her loss of balance was all Sonic needed to forget the danger his nose was warning him about and he dashed forward to catch Amy, his world-famous sound surpassing speed leaving a boom that reverberated with the thunder. Amy could only look on in abject horror as she knew in the mud there would be no way for Sonic to stop himself from being pierced by the inevitable thorn that would greet him. Not wanting to see her own terror reflected in Sonic’s shocked eyes, she squeezed hers fast.

‘How could I?’ Amy accused herself, her heart feeling like it was being pulled in countless directions unable to resist the horror she befell upon the one she loved with every fiber of her being. ‘I knew this would happen if I kept acting without thinking! I’M SO SORRY SONIC!!’

She knew her apology would never reach Sonic, trapped inside her head as it was, and that he would never reach her. Yet, as she splashed down in the mud, she did not feel the impact or the weight from Sonic’s direction that she expected. Hearing his voice though, Amy forced her eyes open as she turned away so as not to see what she feared awaited her.

“Amy?” Sonic asked with surprise, the sword like purple thorn with the stary night at its tip just coming up short of his throat, seeking him from Amy’s chest. Amy could not fathom how Sonic had stopped, the sneeze that marked the peak of his danger sense going off and accomplishing the impossible going unheard over the rain and thunder. The confusion in Sonic’s emerald eyes though only deepening the regret, self-loathing, and fear in hers.

“Maybe instead of trying to impale me you could try telling me what this is all about?”

‘This isn’t what I wanted… this isn’t what was supposed to happen…!’

The story being told by Amy’s eyes failed to make anything clearer, instead muddying further the bizarreness of the situation for Sonic. “What is going through that head of yours Amy? Say something!”

The one demand she could not fulfill no matter how badly she wanted to. The growing concern and anger in Sonic’s eyes. The thought of him discovering her helplessness. The fact that she almost ended his life. That her heart betrayed her. It was suddenly far more than Amy could handle and a storm of fortune cards exploded around her launching her backwards and away from Sonic. Not waiting for Sonic to reorient himself and have the chance to stop her retreat, Amy dropped to the ground and another torrent of fortune cards appeared as she launched herself even higher into the air, twirling like an acrobat as she held her body straight as a pike. She refused to risk landing again and at least two dozen more fortune cards swirled into being around her, forming two rotating rings that kept her airborne and moving away from Sonic.

“Hey! You’re not getting away that easily without telling me what’s going on!”

Hearing Sonic yell angrily at her was like being hit by a towering ocean wave and being knocked out of her own body. The terror of what that could possibly mean erased any possibility of rational thought in consideration of Sonic’s actions. Seeing him ricocheting off tree branches to catch up to her only deepened her fear.

‘No! He’ll catch up in no time like this! Think Amy! There has to be a way to go fast enough to at least give you a chance to get away!’

Though too panicked to think rationally about Sonic’s reaction, Amy’s mind desperate from adrenaline and a need to travel as fast or faster than Sonic pulled her mind back to the Starfall Islands. It was where her journey to master her magic began, and in the need to go as quickly as possible to help Sonic she had developed another way to use her cards for movement.

Ceasing to use her magic to keep herself upright, Amy switched to relying on the strength she had in her torso as she summoned her Piko Piko Hammer and landed on it sidesaddle style. She did not ride the hammer to the ground though, her fortune cards raced to swirl like a wheel around her and her hammer rather than a ring orbiting her waist. The pause in the moment it took to align everything nearly gave Sonic a chance to risk the thorns once again emerging from the cloak, but then Amy was propelled forward in sound shattering burst of speed. Sonic could not begin his pursuit immediately as he first had to land and find his footing in the mud. Fortunately, the light given off by Amy’s cards pointed him in the right direction and he flew as fast as he could across the muddy ground. It was too slick though to match Amy’s magical retreat in speed and Sonic took to leaping from tree trunk to tree trunk with much greater success. To terrifying success from Amy’s perspective as her impromptu magical vehicle lacked any descent control and she was wildly drifting around trees as Sonic rapidly closed in on her. If not for the sudden cliff it would have been impossible for Amy to have gotten away.

“No~!” Sonic started to yell as he overshot Amy as she relinquished her magical chariot and started to fall. Twisting in the air to catch where she would land, Sonic was unprepared as the night sky suddenly blocked his vision. “Gah!”

It hardly took even an instant for Sonic to wrestle the witch’s hat free from his face and toss it away, but there was no sign of Amy as he scanned the forest below him. Looking back toward the hat out of desperation, Sonic was shocked to see that it too had already vanished. Shocked as he was though, he still took the time to focus on landing safely. But even from ground level there was no sign of Amy or the hat, Amy’s magic allowing for a trackless retreat.

Sonic was upset about his failure to catch Amy for several reasons, his pride as the world’s fastest hedgehog letting another hedgehog get away from him in a race among them. More important than his pride though, was his confusion and concern for Amy. In a last desperate bid to get her to explain, he screamed out her name into the storm.

He did not expect that months would pass, and that Amy of all people would become just another part of his life not to look back on. But he could not stop living his life for one regret. He could only move forward, no matter how much it hurt to have failed to have done anything. It was thus a shock when the Rabbit family contacted him desperate for his help. It was even more shocking when they were the ones who had the answers behind Amy’s actions on that stormy night so long ago now.

“That–,” Sonic began to make a remark about Amy as he pinched his brow with the hand of the same arm of which the elbow propped him up at the Rabbit family table, but a warning look from Vanilla kept his words clean, “–dummy.”

Even as clean as he kept his language, Sonic’s anger was apparent to Vanilla’s young daughter, and Cream fidgeted nervously as she risked asking the bristly hedgehog a question.

“Is it that bad Mr. Sonic?”

“Probably worse,” Sonic sighed as he glared at the collection of blank sheets of paper Cream held. They were letters written in magic that only the rabbit who was Amy’s best friend could read. To all others they were just blank sheets of paper, but this was not Sonic’s first time dealing with magic. Having faced the cursed, novice mage, Sonic could clearly sense Amy’s magic on the paper. He was angry with himself for having not figured it out that night and clicked his tongue.

“Even worse than how Amy describes the curses she has?” Cream asked, visibly shaken from the fresh imagery Amy’s writing invoked and Sonic’s anger. Sonic noticed how upset Cream was getting and offered her a smile.

“She definitely wasn’t doing good like you. Great job making it through those scary letters for me!”

“Of course!” Cream beamed at Sonic’s praise and the thumbs-up he flashed her. Vanilla was not leaning in the direction of agreement to praising Cream for nearly traumatizing herself reading the contents of the letters that Amy had been sending and how they described her experience with the curses placed upon her. Noticing the mother rabbit’s expression, Sonic pushed the discussion forward. He wanted to anyway as learning what he did since the Rabbit family asked him for help when the letters stopped coming for months made him want to once again find the pink hedgehog girl he used to not be able to shake.

“The problem is that Amy thinking these curses can help her get better at magic is too naïve. Speaking from personal experience, being cursed isn’t fun, and they only get worse the longer they hang around. I wouldn’t be in anywhere near as great of shape if not for a good friend who helped me back then.”

“Can this friend of yours help Amy, in light of you finding her first?” Vanilla asked hoping to remind Sonic why she had called him there.

“Probably,” Sonic answered Vanilla as he began scratching inside his ear with his pinky finger. He felt bad knowing he was going to have to extinguish the light that appeared in Cream’s eyes at the hope for her best friend, but he still pulled his finger free of his ear and blew on it. “Unfortunately, I can’t just get in touch with her. Amy is probably going to try to keep avoiding me too. She probably can’t shake the image of that one Koco couple she tried to help back on the Starfall Islands. She already compared one of them to herself, and she’s probably plugged me into the role of the other. She doesn’t want us to go through the same thing and wants to refine herself to do it. It’s too much for her though. These curses aren’t just hiding her from the world, they’re cutting off everything she is all so she can focus on learning magic. Even being Amy and her being able to accomplish those things only she can…”

“Then you’ll find her and help her, right Mr. Sonic!” Cream shouted, desperate to hear good news about Amy. Sonic smiled to her again and placed a hand on her head as he stood up.

“You bet,” Sonic offered a reassuring thumbs up yet again. “Amy owes me a race too, so I have to find her and prove her getting away was a stroke of pure luck.”

Pure luck was going to be something that Sonic needed if he were even to get a lead. Since his encounter no one had even seen the purple clad mage. The idea that on that night she had retreated from one polar hemisphere to the other to get away from him was unfathomable. That the amount of magic she used to accomplish the hours upon hours long feat on top of having escaped from him in the first place left her in a state of hibernation since would have been even more shocking. Yet, to Amy who had not realized how far she had traveled and how long she had slept, the season seemed the same and as far as she could tell she had simply slept a night and not for months. The absolute absence of life in the forest below the mountain cave she exited left her feeling extremely guilty.

‘I guess I was hungry, and nothing would stay where it was to become fuel for a mage.’ Summoning her trusty hammer, Amy sat on the head and began her morning routine of rubbing her thighs together. The task was performed in absent-minded habit as her thoughts were elsewhere.

‘I really messed up,’ Amy thought as she sighed, though the long sleep had left her emotions far less volatile. ‘I bet Sonic thinks I hate him after that.’

Looking at the red string that still twirled around her, Amy was not so sure. “Well, at least we still share a destiny even if he does. I wonder if an apology will be enough to at least make Sonic forget about me instead of hating me.’

Tears fell from Amy’s eyes, and she tilted her head back so they would not become like raindrops upon the cloak that bound her. The gray sky above threatened to accomplish that outcome if she failed regardless, and Amy’s brow furrowed as though she were smiling wryly.

‘Meanie,’ she thought to herself before turning her attention back to herself. ‘Well, I have to apologize no matter what. Sonic deserves to know what happened, even if that’s the end of our destiny. Even if it means he’ll never be the key to my heart so I can get free. It’s not like I remember my arms or voice anymore anyway. I doubt even unlocking the Keyhole Rings where my arms would be would bring them back. Where would they even go? They’d be crushed and that’d be worse than not having them.’

She wanted to laugh and cry both at the idea, but without her mouth or voice, she could only shed more tears as the first raindrops began to fall. Not wanting just to cry, Amy shifted her thoughts and looked down at the Keyhole Rings on her feet.

“I wonder, if that’s the case, then would undoing any of these restore any of my control over my body… It doesn’t make sense that it would. Wouldn’t it make more sense that instead I’d be able to use spells that require exerting more of my magic against my body? Like wouldn’t all of that movement last night have been easier if my ability to move, using my feet, wasn’t restricted. In other words, I need to get stronger too.’

Testing herself, Amy chose her right foot and began to try and force her magic into the Keyhole Ring. It easily resisted her attempts, seeming to grow more resistant the more magic she threw at it. She should have been forced to withdraw, but the hedgehog girl was stubborn, and Amy pushed herself to the point of exhaustion. As her magic waned, it became small enough to slip inside the Keyhole Ring.

‘EH~!’

Surprised and exhausted as she was, Amy did not want to waste the opportunity and traced around inside the keyhole attempting to fill its shape with her magic. It was like exploring a puzzle laden dungeon and Amy concentrated fiercely to see the complex structure filled. And then, to her surprise Amy accomplished it and had the shape of the key that would unlock the Keyhole Ring. But the magic was wrong, and it would not turn.

‘Phooey,’ Amy huffed as her efforts seemed to be for naught. Yet she still had the key shape and let it float up before her eyes. ‘Well, it’s the right shape, so maybe I can use it to find the actual key. If it’s a different type of magic but the same shape I just have to pick it out from the rest of the magic that fills the world. Hmm… I think I’ve passed a few places where magic seems to pool from all sorts of different sources. If I take this there maybe I can find the matching shape and trace it back from there.

‘Look at that Amy! You have a plan for the first time since you got turned into this. Right, then being able to apologize to Sonic should no longer be just a silly desire. I’ll just work my way up through each lock since I’ll need to be able to comprehend moving through space that disappears to unlock the ones at my sides. With those undone maybe I’ll have the magical dexterity to hold this silly hat down so I can trace its Keyhole Rings too! But I need to make sure I stay focused first and don’t let my heart steer me off course without thinking about it first.’

A fortune card answering her summons and letting Amy stand up as her hammer vanished, the cursed mage floated over to a nearby Ring spinning on its axis in the air.

‘Perfect!’

Having an idea of what she wanted to do thanks to tracing out the shape of the right foot Keyhole Ring, Amy grabbed the Ring with her magic and flooded the space it occupied, tracing out a complex enclosure until suddenly the Ring disappeared only to reappear closing itself into the same space as the Keyhole Ring on her chest and becoming one itself. It did not cut off the red string, which was exactly what Amy wanted, and a golden key with a Keyhole Ring as its tab floated in the air before her.

‘There! With that I won’t be able to just act on my emotions without getting paralyzed. I’ll have to think it through and come up with the right spell to free myself. And it’ll have to be rooted in an actual plan that won’t let me chase after Sonic until I’ve conquered the other six locks.

‘…

‘It’s kind of useless if I just have the key though.’

For once proving it actually had some reasonable use, the witch’s hat upon Amy’s head leapt off and gulped up the key, erasing all trace of it. Amy could easily sense it within the hat, but that did not stop the incredulous look that took over her face.

‘NO WAY!! All this time you’ve been nothing but useless and now you do something helpful! Just wait until I unlock your Keyhole Rings! Then you’ll answer to me, and I’ll get all of the head magic you’re likely locking up too!

‘Wait! What about the letters I’ve been writing to Cream? Don’t tell me the magic I’ve been using isn’t actually strong enough for her to read them! If this is your fault!

‘Oh~, never mind,’ Amy exhaled sharply through her nose as she calmed herself down. ‘It’s not like I’m ever getting out of this, so I’ll just apologize to Cream when I can find a way to talk to her without a mouth. Until then, since you seem to be able to hear me, that means you get to be my friend.’

Ducking under the floating hat, Amy straightened up and forced it back onto her head. With a nod she looked off towards the horizon as the rain began to pick up.

‘No complaints either, you got it. We’re stuck with each other because there is no way Sonic will let me use him to unlock the last lock after that awful meeting. So, no more complaints about my mouth and arms from me either. I’m already used to being without them, I just have to find a way to be happy like this too.

‘Maybe after I finally apologize to Sonic, I’ll take up traveling magic research and learn everything I can about magic. Traveling just to get better at using it is fun enough, so why not?’

Thinking about the future well beyond her current point, and even her next destined meeting with Sonic, Amy set off on the next leg of her adventure to undo the Keyhole Rings and free herself, planning to replace them with her own so as to even make her cursed form her own under her own power. It was a hopeful dream full of impossible optimism. But that was Amy Rose, and she never gave up on impossible dreams. As long as she did not hurt anyone that was. Hence why she was able to ignore the twitching of the far end of what she could see of the red string around her as it traced Sonic’s search for her, all the while, the rain coming to an end and the sun coming out.

Yet such adventures were boring and lonely themselves, and Amy’s loneliness had already compromised others already. As she had stopped writing Cream, finding ways to stem off her loneliness grew more important, and she found herself experimenting with magic while letting her playful nature keep her from being too dour about it.

~Hark ye who have stumbled upon this tomb and know that you have exposed yourself to the personal account of the life of Sorcerer Lock, the Mage of Cards…

~Pft–~ I’m sorry, that’s too much. It’s not wrong, but not entirely right, I’m going to start over.

~If you’re reading this, you are indeed reading the open diary of Lock the Mage. Except Lock isn’t really my name. It’s what people have started calling me though as my reputation has spread, and it naturally has to do with the seven Keyhole Rings that adorn or otherwise float around me. The whole Mage of Cards bit comes about because I use my fortune cards as a conduit for my magic. The thing is though, right now I’m no sorcerer or anything so grand. I’m just a cursed novice who wanted to get better at magic to help refine myself, and well, here I am on a grand adventure to do just that and lift the curses on me.

~I haven’t figured out what all of the curses are, but I have determined the best order to go about it.

~On each of my stary night slipper clad feet with matching tights are one Keyhole Ring each. The curses on these pretty much keep me from using my legs from my knees down. Undoing those Keyhole Rings, I believe will allow me to access more diverse movement magic than what I can manage with my fortune cards alone. Should I undo both I’m hoping to be able to traverse locations that aren’t technically there. That sounds weird, so let me move on to…

~The large Keyhole Rings floating at my sides about as far out as my wrists would be if I still had arms. I’ll get to that, but without the ability to travel places that aren’t there, I can’t project my magic in to map out the keyholes and track down the magic that shares the same shape. When I do though, the hope is to be able to have access to magic that is at least as good as having hands again, or way better. I’ll need it too if I’m going to deal with the next two.

~On my head are two more Keyhole Rings. Despite wearing a flat cap with a veil that no one but me can see through and big earring placed purple gems, both Keyhole Rings on my head are actually on a witch’s hat that normally sits up there too. The problem is that it’s alive and moves about freely. Without being able to hold it down I can’t map out either of those either. When I do, I’m sure I’ll be able to control it and put an end to the curses from it. I’m sure it’s messing with my head and also secretly sharing magic knowledge with me to help me along, but the first part is a problem. I can’t trust myself to go see my friends, even though all of this doesn’t mean anything if I don’t solve it myself. I can’t talk to them either and can’t be sure if even this diary will ever be readable by anyone thanks to it. But I’m so lonely not being able to have anyone see me in this get up that I’m writing it anyway and if you’re reading it, know you’re as much my companion as this awful hat! And I enjoy fortune telling, so I have no doubt someone will read this someday!

~Ahem. Moving on, the other reason I need control of the hat isn’t just for access to proper communication knowledge, but to also get back the key for the Keyhole Ring I made and cursed myself with. You see, the last Keyhole Ring of the curse from the purple cloak with the stary night pattern at its end and fused itself to me as the world’s tightest mouth and arm stealing mermaid dress doesn’t have a normal key. It rests on my chest and the red string of fate trails out of it and around me. On the other end is none other than who I love with every fiber of my being. Sonic the Hedgehog. He’s the last key, but without lifting the other curses, seeing him didn’t end well. I don’t have real person to person communication magic, I don’t have my mouth, and I don’t have any arms. All I could do was float there staring helplessly at him until he almost got himself impaled on the thorns that grow out of the cloak if anyone tries to reach out for me or gets too close. That meeting was a disaster, and I’m sure after successfully running away that the only fate left between Sonic and me has nothing to do with us being destined lovers anymore. I don’t even think we are anymore after that meeting. But before letting Sonic catch up with me or seeking him out again, I’m going to become the best mage I can and make these curses my own. Afterall, if Sonic and I are no longer destined lovers, then he can’t be the key to my heart to finally undo the last lock. I’m stuck in this armless, mouthless, cloak sealed form forever. But I have to at least apologize to Sonic before dedicating the rest of my life to becoming a great mage worthy of the name Sorcerer Lock, the Mage of Cards.

~Oh, that reminds me. It’s part of why I’m writing this. It’s not just to stave off the suffocating loneliness, but so I don’t forget. Like I said at the beginning, Lock isn’t my actual name. But all anyone sees is this get up which is so not my style. They don’t see me in it, and since my ability to communicate is pretty much gone, it’s what people have started calling me. But if you’re reading this then please, don’t call me Lock. My name is Amy Rose, so please call me Amy. I don’t want to forget my name too. I’ve already forgotten what it feels like to talk or to use my also stolen voice. I don’t even remember what it’s like having a mouth even though my face is full under the collar of the cloak like I should still have one. It’s not like my arms which I’ve also totally forgotten how to use or what it was like having any. It’s frightening that I have too because the Keyhole Rings at my side only show up if I’m using my cards when they used to always be there before just showing up when I tried to imagine using my arms. Imagining using arms isn’t the same and they don’t respond. I’m honestly scared even using my cards won’t be enough one day, so I need to get them mapped before they disappear forever. It’s not like I can give up on them like my memories of walking and using my legs. Without them I can never undo the Keyhole Rings on the hat and that means that the curse I put on me to keep me from pursuing Sonic can’t be undone either. I wouldn’t be able to apologize then and the rest of my life would be weighed down by that one regret. I can’t do that!

~Anyway, that’s where this record of my travels begins. And you’ll be joining me today as I arrive at a rather cute village isolated here in the mountains.

~Why am I here? Because even though I’ve learned that magic exists all throughout nature, spells were crafted by people, so that means curses too. I have to find a place where magic and spells pool so I can hopefully find a magic match to the shape of the one Keyhole I have mapped out. And with that, let’s go~♥~

Depending on the mountain range, one can find idyllic valleys even in the heart of seemingly perpetual blizzards. It was such a forested location that Amy found herself descending into, her brow furrowing as she noticed a tunnel allowing vehicular traffic into the hamlet hidden in the cozy hidden forest. She did not stay frustrated for long however as vehicular traffic meant modern amenities and she gleefully allowed herself to levitate into town. The sight of a ninety-centimeter-tall armless figure in a purple mermaid dress and witch’s hat with a fortune card orbiting about them floating into town easily attracted attention and it was soon known that the mage had arrived in the small community. It hardly mattered to Amy however, at least until she chose a local coffee shop to delight herself in.

“The Mage of Cards? Here?” A lady waiting in line for service at the counter asked, prompting Amy to turn invisible.

“That’s what I heard,” another lady replied. “Lock was seen here of all places. I can only imagine the trouble she’ll bring.”

~If you’re feeling bad about the response to me, it’s fine. It happens all the time. I mean, for as beautiful as this outfit looks, no one can see who’s wearing it so it’s natural to be suspicious. That, and it’s no mystery that Sonic is looking for me. I’m not sure why since it’s been months since that fateful night. Maybe Cream asked him to since I haven’t seen her since before I set out on my little trip of self-refinement. I had been writing her, but when it occurred to me that the curses on the hat probably made my letters unreadable, I stopped. Sending her blank pieces of paper because I can’t use a pen and she can’t read magic inscribed letters just seems silly. Did those envelops I dropped off even go anywhere? Either way, Sonic is looking for me, and people know. Because he isn’t sharing why beyond unfinished business in the few interview clips I’ve seen, people think I’m his enemy. It’s heartbreaking enough anytime I see him on TV or hear his voice, but thinking I might be someone Sonic sees as an enemy now…

~No! I can’t feel sorry for myself. I just need to stay focused on these curses. That and cheering myself up a little.~

The idea of trouble being brought was said in a broad sense by the lady and she was ill prepared for Amy to suddenly appear out of thin air as she looked back at the other lady she was speaking with. If Amy had her voice still, she would have laughed at the look of shocked horror on the woman’s face. Her amusement quickly turned to guilt however when both women started profusely apologizing to her. She could hardly do anything in response and did not know peace until she ordered an herbal tea by pointing at the menu with another summoned fortune care and sat outside to wait for it.

~You’re probably wondering how I’m going to eat without a mouth, and I can assure not with my nose. I’m going to use magic to extract what I need from it to keep myself going. Eating this way is one of the first things I had to learn when I was first cursed. I honestly thought I was going to die if I didn’t figure it out, and I can take from anything I want really. I like herbal tea though as herbs are very rich in magic and helps keep my magic from draining out too fast. If I use too much, I get so sleepy. I can actually sleep for months at a time it turns out if I’m not careful. When that happens, I can’t really stop myself from absorbing from everything around me just to stay alive. Which is kind of a dreadful state to be in because it means even if I wanted to waste away after what I did to Sonic my magic wouldn’t let me. It feels like an extra curse on top of all the rest. I can’t even give it away; I’ve tried but the dumb hat has stopped me. I’m trying to be friends with it, but it’s always causing me so much trouble. I swear it’s doing it on purpose. But I think an example would better help demonstrate what I mean.~

After extracting everything she could from the herbal tea and causing it to dissipate into nothing, Amy set about town in search of a demonstration of her intentions. Her search was for more than a demonstration however and she kept her magic senses on high as she drifted about town ducking into and out of alleys. Her efforts paid off eventually as she found the back door of a bakery where the quickly staling early morning, short-lived goods were being disposed of.

“Get out of there you wretch!” the employee disposing of the wasted foodstuffs yelled at a man in tattered rags who was waist deep in the trash bin in the alley. It put him in perfect position to be kicked in the side and sent rolling with the trash can. “Don’t make me call the cops!”

~It’s awful seeing how people will hurt each other when they can help each other. Maybe those baked goods are stale now, they sure smell it, but this poor man is hungry and hasn’t given up on life yet. That it’s more important to that person to throw out food that could help someone then helping them out makes me want to scream some sense into them. All I can do as I am right now though is try to help.~

From where she had again cast her invisibility spell on herself, Amy looked down the alley to where the beggar was skulking away as the bakery employee scowled after them while being sure to put a lock on the trash.

~Disgraceful.~

Her mind made up, Amy reached into herself and took hold of her own life force before turning her eyes back in the vagrant’s direction. Exactly as she expected, the hat that normally adorned her head was floating in front of her to block her line of sight to the man.

~And this is what always happens when I try. This silly hat proves itself helpful and won’t let me hurt myself, not even to help someone else. But there are other ways I can help as I’ve learned. Those baked goods may be under lock and key until the trash collectors come for them, but a simple thing like that can’t stop my magic. I’ll just extract all of the nutrients from every bit of food in there and pass it on to this poor man. I’d like to do more, but…~

Though her eyes were downcast, they still smiled as Amy successfully circumvented the hat and managed to get the vagrant a full meal.

~Sorry you didn’t get to enjoy the taste; I know just how you feel. But with a full belly you should be able to find the strength to try and improve things for yourself. Best of luck!~

The demonstration for whoever might read the open diary she magically inscribed into every reasonable surface she passed while traveling over, Amy resumed her search of town for whatever else there was she had traveled there for through the frozen mountains beyond. But she soon tired and took a seat on a bench to allow her own magic to recharge. She couldn’t help but feel that the cloak that bound her did the same as she caught a slender thorn grow from it to impale a mosquito that dared drift too near. She sighed heavily through her nose at her powerlessness, her earlier act of kindness doing little to help her feel assured of her growth as a mage. Another test soon presented itself though as an explosion rocked the edge of the town.

~What was that!~

Not realizing she was still recording her open diary, Amy summoned up several of her fortune cards, the cards pulling her back to a standing levitation. As they settled into orbit around her, she rushed off after the explosion as people either stood stunned or fled. The tendency of some people to scream in their panic however told Amy immediately what she was getting into.

“It���s Eggman! Run for your lives!”

~Eggman? Here? No, it’s probably just a stray robot. He wouldn’t bother with a place like this unless it had something that he wanted. As much as he torments gods too, I’m sure he has no way to interact with magic.~

Rounding a corner and letting her cards disperse so she could slow down, Amy set about determining what she was up against. While not the nefarious Doctor Eggman himself, what appeared was too much trouble for a town far enough removed from most to not have any Wispon users or even Wisps present to help. Waving an oversized drill of a right hand while tossing bombs with a left hand that seemed to create giant bombs that exploded into a rain of smaller bombs, the lumbering Eggman shaped mech stared down the edge of town with a glowing smile.

~Is that based on an Egg Hammer?~

The robot Amy compared the one she faced to was towering machine that shared a similar heavily armored build but typically carried a two-handed hammer. In her own days of wielding a toy hammer as her weapon of choice, she could boast about having beaten many of them at their own hammer swinging game. With no arms to swing her hammer and next to no control of her body physically, such feats were beyond the novice mage. Yet that did not seem to matter.

Not noticing Amy’s arrival, the Egg Driller opened up its left palm and presented a new bomb for the terrified townsfolk. Tossing it up into the air, it smiled brightly as the bomb exploded into a shiny set of smaller bombs ready to rain down destruction and chaos. Such did not happen however as Amy glided across the ground and positioned herself between the town and the machine, most of the fortune cards that had been orbiting her finding their way skyward and decimating the rain of bombs. That action alone earned the mage the full attention of the robot that she glared down as she sent more fortune cards to push and drag people to safety. Her efforts seemed futile however as the crowd shifted from panic to curiosity at the sight of an unexpected hero. Amy had no time to worry however as she had to focus on moving herself as the Egg Driller lunged at her with its namesake right arm. Summoning more of her fortune cards to get her moving, Amy deftly dodged the attack, but was forced to make a spiraling shield of cards to catch the follow up backhand. As the robot jumped away it launched several missiles from its backpack unit which spiraled wildly after Amy. The rocket powered speed of the missiles forced Amy to retreat rather than destroy them allowing several to crash into the ground and send debris flying with. Not risking more destruction, she took a short hop and slammed down into the ground, her cards catching her. Exploding outward away from her, the recoil sent her spiraling like a pike well into the air. This provided the room necessary for further missiles to curve up after her only to get sliced in half by a magic imbued fortune card each.

Needing to keep the Egg Driller’s attention away from the ground, Amy cast forth enough fortune cards to form two orbiting rings around her and slowing her descent to a crawl. As she slowly descended, she matched eyes with the towering robot and the next exchange began.

Dropping to a knee, the Egg Driller fired off another salvo of missiles at Amy as it summoned another giant bomb to hand. Rolling the bomb to take up where Amy could next stomp down, it set its arm to use and bored once again into the ground. This left Amy with no target and a need to dodge a spiraling salvo of explosive projectiles, a situation which became an opportunity to dance. Letting her orbiting cards pull her about through the air, Amy summoned several more to intercept the missiles while making sure to also cut the fuse of the giant bomb below her. Trapped within the greater bomb, the smaller ones within still went off and Amy braced herself for her opponent to send it flying into the air after her as it was transformed into a rather volatile spiked ball.

Ready as Amy was, it was no surprise when the deformed bomb at last jetted into the air for her, the damage on the underside allowing the internal explosions to escape and fuel it like a rocket. Amy did not back down however and cast out two fortune cards spinning like a saw blade of growing diameter to split the bomb in half. Cut as it was, the internal explosions blasted the two halves harmlessly into the mountains that surrounded the town. It was an impressive and flashy display that nearly blinded Amy to her opponent’s spectacular achievement of reaching her elevation. It was not an achievement managed by the Egg Driller under its own power though.

~EH~~~~~!!!!! Why is a guardian statue here! And why is it so big!~

The Egg Driller became a thing of all of no interest to Amy as it was crushed mercilessly in the mouth of a stone dragon, it’s drill falling to the ground below, the explosions from its remaining bombs and missiles seeming to have all of no effect on the stone beast.

~Eh-hehehehe… Right! Let’s make this a lesson about guardian statues and magic beasts. Since I’ve been looking for places where magic pools and hopefully where spells pool as well, I’ve fought quite a few. Most magical beasts aren’t too bad as I can just overpower them with an assault of magic, but guardian statues are a very different problem.~

Donning a steely look in her eyes, Amy summoned even more cards and sent them out to strike the dragon statue that closed in on her. Unlike with the bombs she had been attacking before, her cards did not even scratch the dragon, instead seeming to find resistance against an unseen barrier. Her attack proving useless, Amy was fully exposed to the jaws of the statue as they clamped down fast on her.

~The problem with guardian statues, you see, is they have magic resistance, and my magic isn’t powerful enough to penetrate it. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to beat them.~

Despite the difference in magic power between Amy’s offensive casting and the defenses of her new opponent, the magic Amy used to place cards stopping every tooth of the statue proved sufficient to keep her from becoming its second meal. Summoning more cards, she retreated backwards out of its mouth and summoned the rest of her cards back to her to increase her speed, but the statue was not caught off guard by the fierce shutting of its jaws and turned over catching Amy full on in a powerful tail whip. The blow sent the purple clad hedgehog careening into the ground and through the forest with enough force to cause a massive dust cloud to billow up. The townsfolk could only watch in terror as the stone beast roared triumphantly, afraid they would be next. But they possessed no magic and did not interest the beast. Instead, it was magic activity in the forest that drew the beast’s attention. Descending in hot pursuit of Amy, the guardian statue only did not crash into the ground by spreading its wings at the last possible second. The motion seemed to have saved it as several fortune cards flew under it, clearly missing their mark. Not spotting Amy, the dragon landed to better see through the trees, uprooting several with its weight and revealing that the floor of the forest had become a pit of dust. Immediately the massive statue sank, the friction between stone and dust preventing even its powerful wingbeats from lifting it. What it did achieve however was a parting of the trees to reveal the purple clad Mage of Cards staring it down with green glowing eyes as her fortune cards danced mercilessly through the ground deepening the pit of dust.

~You see, even with magic there are physical limitations that have to be considered. I’ve taken worse hits from Knuckles when playing around, so I’m fine after a hit like that, mostly, but this thing is too heavy to get back out and once I pull my cards out of the ground, it’ll set instantly trapping it in the ground.~

The roar that erupted from the guardian statue was not one of defeat, and it opened its mouth wide to reveal a growing light between its jaws. Amy held her ground without fear however as she was prepared, a fact the statue came to realize as the Egg Driller’s drill filled the space above its head. It tried to twist out of the way, but the drill was brought down hard, a storm of fortune cards spiraling around it to increase its speed well beyond the limits of the robot that once wielded it.

~The tricky part with guardian statues is that their magical defenses allow them to shrug off most non magical attacks, and most magical attacks don’t work either. So, the best solution is to combine the two and overload its defenses.~

Spiraling around the drill as Amy’s fortune cards were, they served as a forward drill to meet the magic resistance of the dragon. As they peeled away the drill lowered and lowered until card and drill both bore relentlessly against the beast. All the while, Amy watched on with cold, glowing eyes as the beast released another roar. This one would prove to be its last as the stone of its head cracked and splintered for only a moment before the drill shattered it into a cloud of dust, the rest of its body following suit and leaving Amy standing alone in the forest. She was not left alone for long and was soon joined by a cheering crowd of villagers whose lives she saved from two unexpected threats that day.

~I wouldn’t say this is how my adventures have been going normally. I mean, I don’t usually have people telling me how cool I am after a fight, or how intimidating and frightening I look when staring down an opponent. I mean, I guess I do look cool. and considering my figure is really shown off by this get up I bet I look a lot more mature than I feel. Being called scary though kind of hurts. I try so hard to be cute, but it really is impossible like this. I bet Rouge could pull this off way better than me. Maybe I’ll ask her for some pointers when I finally get that far along. For now, though, I need to check out the magic ruins the guardian was protecting and see if I can’t find any clues or helpful knowledge. It’d be nice to find another mage, but I feel like if there are any this cloak is a sure sign to avoid me. Who knows though, maybe when I find the first key that will change. I hope you’ll be excited when you find my next diary entry. It’s been fun talking, but for now, I need to do secret stuff. If you’re a mage too, you’ll have to do your own research. Best of luck~♥~

“I’m not a mage, and the research I have to do is figuring out where you went next,” Sonic sighed as he sat on the edge of the ruin revealing chasm that the guardian statue had emerged from. “How did you not pass out after that when just running from me had you out for months?”

“Lock left no notes on that did she?” an old man asked Sonic as he walked up with his hands clasped behind his back. He eyed the ring on Sonic’s left ring finger, oblivious to it being constructed by burning the letters sent to Cream and having the ashes sealed within the metal. He was further without knowledge of how wearing it where he did allowed Sonic to see the end of the red string that swirled around Lock tied around his left pinky. All the old man knew was that the Ring allowed Sonic to read Lock’s notes since he traveled around the small hamlet touching it to various places where the Mage of Cards had passed through.

“I’d appreciate a hint at least,” Sonic admitted his ignorance to Amy simply absorbing the released magic of her opponent to keep herself going.

“Ho, ho, ho,” the old man laughed. “When Lock arrived, we feared her you know. Your search for her and her never waiting to meet you or speaking for herself and all. But after she saved us, we realized she must have had a good reason to avoid you. Whatever it may be, we all agreed not to betray her kindness and help you should you come through. I hope you can forgive us our kindness.”

“Nothing to be done about it,” Sonic shrugged as he stood up and dusted himself off. “If she wants to lead me on an adventure, I’ll enjoy it until she slips up and I finally catch her. She can’t outrun me forever, I’m Sonic the Hedgehog after all.”

“Ho, ho, ho! Best of luck then. I just hope your unfinished business isn’t to bring her any harm.”

“Heh,” Sonic smirked. “Trust me, I’d never hurt her by choice. Even reading about her fears about her hat I can't believe she's managed to convince herself that I hate her.”

Sonic's last sentence went unheard as he was gone in a blink before saying it, speeding off hoping to stumble upon another of Amy’s diaries. As he ran, he spied a quick glance to his left hand. Whether he was checking the red string tied around his pinky and tracing into empty air and Amy at some distance or contemplating the placement of the ring he crafted with Tails aid to help him on his quest could not be said. Regardless, he allowed himself a smirk and accelerated further. The next chapter of Lock’s journal was out there somewhere waiting to be read and to take him one step closer to the errant hedgehog girl who used to chase him. The adventure was far from over for either of them.

The worsening loneliness of Lock only assured that most of the mage’s journal entries were frivolous more than they were helpful. They covered anything and everything from how she used magic to stay clean and felt like the laundry when wet to remarking on the influence of magic and spells on wildlife and geography. Not all of them were without value, and it was one that would lead more into her collecting of fortune cards that proved most valuable.

“Really, I can hardly thank you enough Lock,” a local trader clapped his hands together as his goods carrying pickup truck did not share the same fate as the scattered remnants of Eggman’s robots on the rocky mountain road he traversed. “Are you sure this is really all you want? It’s a trivial trinket I picked up because I liked the art. It doesn’t hold any value and if you just took on regular bodyguard work like this you could surely earn a fortune.

“No?” the trader asked as Lock shook her head. Looking back over his shoulder he could see a town down the road and smiled disappointedly. “Well, I can make it the rest of way myself, so I suppose it’s only fair I give this to you now.

“Take care Lock! May your journeys prove more lucrative than this one!”

~I feel so bad not being able to tell him how valuable this little trinket actually is.

~Oh, right! It’s Lock again! What’s that? Wasn’t I using another name? Hee-hee… About that, it’s kind of embarrassing. I started writing this diary so I wouldn’t forget and to stave off my loneliness, but well, I went and forgot anyway. So, if you know my actual name, please use it. I’m sure it’s better than Lock.

~Anyway, on more important matters, I finally have a lead to the first key! Some context will help though. Um, as much as I like learning about magic, I have to take my mind off of it from time to time so I can clear my head to think better. So, I’ve taken to collecting fortune cards during my travels. Not just any fortune cards as I already have a full deck, but False Arcana.

~False Arcana are kind of hard to explain, but in short, they are fortune cards that are not part of any of the existing suits. They don’t actually belong and are thus false. As a practitioner of cartomancy beyond the use of just fortune cards, I can mix them into my deck and make readings based on their inherent meanings. Adding them to my deck has also expanded my magical ability so collecting them is especially helpful. And no worries about the backs not matching my deck, as binding them to my magic by making Keyhole Rings and conquering the dungeons my mind explores when doing so fully changes them to match. It’s the Meaningless False Arcana that are much more troublesome after all.

~Unlike regular False Arcana, Meaningless False Arcana don’t even have inherent meaning of their own. They’re literally just art pieces in the fashion of fortune cards. They’re effectively useless, but some are weird and I can sense magic in them. Well, spells more accurately. And that’s what brings us back to how much this person I escorted helped me out. I probably wouldn’t have even met him, but the little trinket he had was a Meaningless False Arcana that I can sense a spell from that matches the key shape I traced out for the Keyhole Ring on my left foot! Hold on a moment while I try to bind it to my magic!

­~…

~…

~… AUGH~~~~!!!!! I can’t do it! The dungeon doesn’t make any sense!~

Perhaps to the mercy of the future reader of Lock’s diary, she stopped writing as her frustration reached a head and she glared at the card she had acquired. The art it held was that of a town in some verdant land and the name of the card was simply “Valsoth.”

With a heavy sigh through her nose, Lock gave up on the card for the moment and turned her attention away from it. ‘Wait a minute… NO WAY!!’

Lock’s excitement could only be contained by her voiceless, mouthlessness as her senses detected the same magic on the card in the air. Looking around with fevered excitement as at last she found a lead to one of the Keyhole Rings of the curses and cloak that bound her, Lock summoned fortune card after fortune card absentmindedly to allow her to jump in joy as she found a hidden path deeper into the rocky mountains she currently traveled. As she calmed herself down, she took several of them and let them swirl around her until they forced her into a ball form, and she rolled down through the hidden path. It hardly seemed a sight worth noting, a hedgehog curling into a ball, but the sight of the witch’s hat that accompanied her bouncing along atop Lock’s curled form was a difficult to ignore curiosity.

~Asides from collecting cards and growing my magic, I’ve also been working on what physical abilities of mine I can. With Sonic the Hedgehog of all people chasing me, I need to be able to. As he uses his ability to curl into a ball to manipulate his speed and attack, I’ve been training to do the same. I’m definitely better at using magic to attack, but traveling by rolling and steering with my magic is faster and less magic consuming than levitating. It feels humiliating though like this so I try not to do it where people can see me. I also have to be careful when I stumble upon magic beasts.

~Like magic guardians, magic beasts are typically resistant to most physical attacks. While rolling is a good way to get away from them, it’s better to fight and eradicate them. While magic beasts are living things, most of the time, they aren’t natural and simply bring destruction to everything if left alone. I worry sometimes that being able to get rid of them has made me less sensitive to the value of life, even if destroying them is to protect life that isn’t only destructive. ‘Oh! What’s that!’

Distracted as she was by the magic beasts that lined the path she followed through the mountains as well as her Rolling Spin Attack training, Lock had not been paying attention to where she had been going. Several stone bridges had passed under her and many a matching staircase had brought her to a shallow stretch of river. Across from the bank where she levitated a sheer cliff was draped in many waterfalls, a megalithic structure carving a chasm into it.

Even if Lock had not sensed the trail of the spell for the key to the Keyhole Ring on her right foot, her curiosity would have drawn her to levitate across the water. The structure was simple, but the rocks were carved into tiers of stone creating a layered effect creating defined depth. It was as though she was floating into a columned entryway where no columns had been carved at all.

‘W~O~W!!’

The towering chasm did at last come to an end however, marked by a staircase leading up into a narrow slit in the artificial cavern wall. Making it her destination, Lock was surprised when she came across rich tapestries hanging in decoration and a stone wall that split apart as automatic doors.

“Oh?” A voice spoke from the side in what could best described as a lobby made in a megalithic structure. Turning to see who spoke, Lock laid her eyes on an aged star-nosed mole in star patterned robes. “It’s been some time since a guest arrived following a spell. I suppose it is only natural for you, a Student of Curses, however.

‘EH~!! Is this a magic school?’

“Seeing the look on your face and sensing the curses that instruct you in the ways of magic, I suppose it’s best I explain. But not here.”

Coming out from behind the stone desk he sat at, the star-nosed mole led Lock to a hidden stone door in a side wall, blatantly far removed from the wall opposite where she arrived and likely leading to the main structure. Though she looked back curiously at what lay beyond that wall, she could not ignore that she had just met someone who understood her situation, and likely far better than she herself did. Putting aside her curiosity, she followed the mole beyond the door and into the torchlit darkness beyond. As the stone door closed behind them, and they began to descend a staircase with several landings likely also holding hidden doors, the mole began his exposition.

“Forgive my presumptions, but based on your appearance and the Keyhole Rings on your person, I am not wrong in believing that you are Lock, the Mage of Cards?”

Lock was confused for a moment by the mole’s phrasing, and he moved to clarify the intent of his inquiry. “You are Lock, the Mage of Cards, correct?”

Clearly understanding, Lock nodded her confirmation of her identity.

“Ah, then it is good that I led you this way and not into the main library. You have many destinies yet tied to you young mage. It would have been detrimental to those who yet rely on you if I had inadvertently brought an end to your instructors.”

‘What?’ Lock asked, though unheard, as she came to a stop.

“Are you surprised Lock?” the mole asked without turning back to look. “This is a library built by mages for mages. To protect its contents and those who would study within its walls, a degree of anti-magic zones had to be put in place. Had you walked through one, the curses that instruct you would have come undone, and you would have been freed from them. You would, however, have reached your limits as a mage. To discard your teachers so would have been to abandon your training. We would have welcomed you to study here and perhaps you could have exceeded your limits in time, but to present that path to you without your consent would have been wrong.”

‘What part of lifting curses requires consent?’ Lock asked herself as she chased after the mole as he resumed his descent. ‘I mean, I know I’ve already turned down help already, so maybe, I guess I would have been upset. But it definitely didn’t have anything to do with getting stronger.’

Stumped by her own feelings on the curses binding her, Lock offered no further resistance as the mole led her to a small room with a few empty shelves on the wall opposite the door and a seat to the left of the entry.

“Your confusion is obvious young mage, as it should be. Your relationship with your teachers is not solely with them. There are your goals and those relationships you had before you began your journey, no less your perception of your place in the world. To be free of your teachers is not a choice you can make so casually. As such, feel free to use this chamber to think about why you have chosen this path and what your goals are. If you can come to the conclusion that you would be willing to discard your teachers, Student of Curses, then I shall allow you access to the library. You will need some time though; I have no doubt of such and will leave you to your thoughts.”

As Lock fell into the available seat in the room, the mole left, and the door again became part of a solid stone wall. Lock only stared at it for a moment before turning to her own thoughts and adorning the chamber in the writings of her diary.

~I suppose now is as good of time as any to review what I’m doing and why. It’s not actually easy to though. Most of my memories from before I was transformed by this cloak are behind a fog in my head. I’m sure that has to do with one of the curses on the living witch’s hat accompanying me, but those memories are still there. I just can’t grasp them or make out the details. It’s not like with my true name that I’ve completely forgotten, or the sensation of having arms, a tail, mouth, or even a voice that are all alien to me now. I can’t even be sure that the voice I think with is anything at all like the voice I had before my transformation. It’s been so long and combined with the curses trying to remember or even imagine it is a waste of time and energy. With the curses lifted though, it’d all come back, right?~

The hat that nested on Lock’s head took the opportunity provided to it to jump off of the mage’s head and to look at it with a faceless gaze.

~Actually, abandoning this path now would be kind of selfish. Though it’s likely given life by the curses I wear, this hat is my only friend right now. I betrayed myself to my emotions and destroyed any semblance of a relationship I had with Sonic, though the red string of fate still binds us. But he’s the only person I can clearly see from before I was cursed. I mean, it helps that I see him all the time on the TV, but even his companion, who I know is a friend I can only remember when I see him on the TV. And my other friends? I can’t see my memories of them at all past the fog. Their names and faces are all out of my reach. But I know I asked them not to help. Overcoming these curses has been part of my journey to refine myself, to grow beyond the immature girl I was who would lead Sonic and myself to the same fate as the Koco on the Starfall islands. And I nearly let the thorns this cloak grows end Sonic. To abandon all of that now and just give up would be like throwing it all in the face of my friends. I can’t do that. It’s not like me to give up either.

~It’s not like I’ve learned nothing on this journey either. I’ve definitely grown a lot stronger with magic than I’ve ever been without it. Fighting and traveling are both so effortless, even if tiring if I’m not careful. I can sustain myself without food and even feed the hungry if I’m delicate with the right spells. I’ve grown my fortune deck and figured out that the curses being conquered won’t free me but will rather grant me magic beyond what I can currently master myself. I’ve even learned how to make my own Keyhole Rings to bind magic and spells to my will. Lastly, I managed to map out the shape of the key for at least one of the Keyhole Rings binding me. It’s just figuring out this card that possesses magic that matches the key’s shape.~

Summoning the glowing key of magic she had crafted by mapping out the “dungeon” of the Keyhole Ring on her right foot, Lock stared at it for a moment before turning her attention to the Meaningless False Arcana that bore the picture of some distant town seemingly named Valsoth. It didn’t feel right, and she couldn’t quite pin down why.

~If I’m right, unlocking one curse on my feet should open up an avenue to travel in ways that I currently can’t. I’m not sure what those could be as I can already levitate, roll, ride my hammer like a broomstick, and practically fly if I expend enough of my magical strength. The risk of exhausting myself and passing out is really high if I do for too long, but it’s not like I’m wanting for ways to move.

~So, what about this card? It’s a Meaningless False Arcana, but it definitely possesses the purified spell of one of the curses on my feet. If I can figure that out, then surely, I wouldn’t have a reason to give up here and admit defeat. It’s not that giving up isn’t necessarily the more appropriate choice under the right circumstances, but I feel like if I just think about it a little longer, I can figure it out and push myself that extra bit to continue and grow into the refined version of me who can solve her own problems and not be a risk to Sonic. That almost seems silly itself though since I’m certain that after I apologize for everything we’ll part never to meet again.~

…

…

…

~NO! I can’t think like that right now because otherwise there isn’t any point to doing anything. Why give up if giving up doesn’t mean anything? At least if I push forward, I can learn and grow, maybe even help people I otherwise never could. Isn’t that what the mole was saying too? That there are still people who need my help as mage, and not the girl I was before becoming Lock? But if they’re as unreachable as the town on this card…~

Again, Lock stared at the card looking for an answer, but it offered none, not even a hint.

~As it is right now, they’re all as unreachable as the town on this card. It’s obviously where I need to go, but how do I get there if I don’t know where it is?

~Wait! Is that it?~

Summoning a card to pull her to her normal levitating, Lock scanned the chamber she had been sealed in and spotted clumps of gray grass growing through cracks in the ground. Floating over, she eyed them for a moment before attacking them with more of her cards. Cutting grass seemed like a waste of magic, but what she sought appeared as the grass easily gave, Rings scattering with their removal. Isolating one with her cards, Lock held the Valsoth card up beyond it.

~Meaningless False Arcana don’t normally have any meaning. But in its upright position this card is illustrating where I need to go. That would mean in reverse…~

Once again casting her magic through a Ring to bind the card to her magic, Lock inverted the card and changed its meaning, opening up an ethereal landscape in the form of one of the mental dungeons she had been facing as she bound other cards. Unlike when last she did, the dungeon was now coherent and the name on the card changed from Valsoth to South Vale. At his desk far above, the star-nosed mole smiled and praised Lock. “She is truly magnificent. Be it her pride or her curiosity, her attraction to unraveling the mysteries of magic is a boon too long lost from this world. Go forth than Student of Curses, face the destiny on the path before you.”

~…In reverse, the meaning of the card is where I am, and the magic of the curse is to travel where I am not. It’s not teleportation either, but literally traversing where I’m not. It’ll take a lot of magic to sustain the spell though, and I’ll be vastly weaker while maintaining it. I’ll practically be back to where I started when I was first learning. But, if I can learn spells in the land beyond this card, I’ll grow easily as I’m not ignorant now. First though… first, I conquer this card and begin making the magic of the curse my own. And I won’t fail. Not this time. Why? Because…­

In the land beyond the card, join Lock as she ventures across South Vale, meeting the people and learning their tale of isolation as she seeks the key to the first Keyhole Ring binding her. Help her assist in the people’s preparation for the coming of the King of Camelot, foretold to follow the arrival of the land’s first visitor in generations. Challenge the magic beasts that have been plaguing the land and their master, the Waker of Beasts who seeks to wake magic beasts not just from the land, but the people. Master the magic of the cards, save the land, prepare for the king, and prevent the Waker of Beasts from knowing victory and bringing catastrophe to South Vale. The fate of the land lies in the hands of a mage with none. But hope is not lost for…

…

…

…

“So, where is she?” Sonic asked as he lowered his left hand away from the wall in the chamber Lock had occupied. “It’s obviously not here either.”

“Please your majesty, I understand your impatience, but Lock is only now coming into her own. To understand her magic before she herself has is an impossibility. All I can do is collect the record of her journey as written by herself.”

Sonic eyed the star-nosed mole suspiciously as he watched him weave his hands and draw the words of Lock’s diary from all over the world into volume after volume filling the shelves of the chamber. As the mole finished, he again turned his attention to Sonic.

“I must thank you as well your majesty,” the mole began. “If not for your contributions, gathering her account of her adventure would be impossible. That said, when the time comes that she overcomes her curses, surpassing her instructors, and becoming a scholar rather than a student, might it be too much to ask that you leave that ring you wear in our care? It is after all, an artifact born of Lock’s magic and legacy. It is only right that it be kept in a library dedicated to the preservation of the history of magic.”

“It means that much to you?” Sonic asked as he held up his left hand to gaze at the simple gold ring upon his left ring finger. Rubbing it with the fingers of his right hand, he spied the red string tied to his left pinky that he could not see without the ring knowing that Lock was on the unseen other end. “I’ll keep it in mind. But don’t expect a concrete answer until I know she’s safe and free of the nasty collection of curses that she’s running around wearing like a bad fashion choice.”

“Of course, your majesty,” the mole eagerly nodded. “I only ask that you consider it. We would never think to force the hand of a king here.” “Yeah, two more things,” Sonic sighed and rested his right hand on his hip as his left dangled at his side. “Enough with the majesty nonsense. The name is Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. And her name is…

To be continued [?] in an Alundra meets Sonic 3D: Flickies Island inspired action RPG that will likely never be made

Prologue of the Adventures of Lock ~ FIN

-----

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[larxicana]

PTSD Representation within DATV

God I just need to talk about how much I love how the game handles Lucanis's PTSD, especially as someone living with PTSD.

Spoilers for Veilguard and Lucanis's story line under the cut.

Grab a drink and a snack. This is a long one XD

After -checks notes- 450hrs into Veilguard, I can confidently say that Lucanis is my favorite character, and not just because of his lethal sad puppy eyes. For this post, I'll just be focusing specifically on his PTSD and how it's portrayed.

So we first meet Lucanis in the Ossuary, after a very dramatic slaughter of some Venatori guards. For a guy who has been locked up and tortured for a year, he looks pretty damn good. I know this is just game bullshit, but I like it from the perspective of a mask, a protective front. He looks collected, well put together, suave, the perfect image of a master assassin, a Crow, a world class mage-killer. This is kind of what someone would expect him to look like. This is what he's supposed to look like. He doesn't look like a man who has been tortured for a year, because it's hidden behind an acceptable appearance.

Of course the deeper we go through the Ossuary, we see evidence of the horrendous experiments that went on there, just a tiny fraction, a hint of what Lucanis went through. Then afterwards, he talks a little about his experience with the others as we walk around doing quests. One such dialog always stuck with me:

Davrin: So this Ossuary Rook found you in, what goes on down there? Lucanis: Nothing good. Davrin: How did you survive? Lucanis: Shut down completely. Think nothing, feel nothing, except what you need to escape. Davrin: What's left? Lucanis: If you're lucky? Revenge. And bad dreams.

Every time I hear this, I feel like someone is squeezing my heart with both hands. First of all, there's a very clear deflection in each line Lucanis says. "And bad dreams" is delivered with a touch of humor and lightness, the sort of tone that's used to make the person you're talking to smile or chuckle, which would diffuse the tense moment, take the pressure off of him and sweep his true feelings under the rug while Davrin is distracted from them by the joking tone.

Once again, that mask, that front, is in place. Davrin expects the events of the Ossuary to be horrific, so Lucanis plays a bit of the part, agrees that it was horrible, but it's so incredibly surface level, and he keeps it that way. As Davrin asks questions, tries to dig a little deeper, Lucanis pulls the card of "I survived the Ossuary and all I got was this stupid shirt."

The world conditions us to wear the mask; no one actually wants a real answer when they ask "how are you?" When we've experienced trauma, we hold onto that mask even tighter because we feel damaged or hurt on the inside. We aren't supposed to be that way, feel that way. No one wants to deal with that.

A Crow isn't supposed to be that way. The Demon of Vyrantium isn't supposed to be broken, damaged. He's supposed to be a professional, a master class assassin, the heir to the seat of First Talon.

We see a lot of Lucanis struggling with who he is after the Ossuary as well, which is one of my favorite details. There are moments, like after Weisshaupt, when Lucanis says "I thought after the Ossuary, I could still take out a target." Or when we first meet him in the cell, when Rook says Caterina promised them a mage-killer and Lucanis replies "I can still work." During the quest Inner Demons, there are so many thought fragment notes where Lucanis says he isn't supposed to be like this, that he's better than this, that he can't be like this.

God, breaks my heart. I empathize with that so much. Something I personally struggled with a lot when learning to live with PTSD was the fact that I felt like I wasn't the same person I was before my trauma. I was so angry, because I really liked the person I was before. I was happy, and now all of a sudden, I felt like the exact opposite. For quite some time, I couldn't think of it as anything else. I didn't want to move forward, because that would be accepting that I've changed.

Then there's the expectation of living up to what people remember you as and the shame when you fall flat and the people you care about see that shortcoming. You feel like a burden. They didn't sign up to deal with your bullshit.

Think of it like carrying an overcrowded tray of drinks. It's heavy, cumbersome, and any jostle to your person spills a little bit of that water. Any obstacle, big or small, threatens the delicate balance of the sudden armful of crap you're forced to carry. And when you do fumble, make a mistake, step where you thought there was solid ground, only to find a pot hole, those glasses come crashing down in a loud and explosive commotion that draws the attention of everyone around you. All of a sudden you're soaked, surrounded by the signs of your failure, and you feel so embarrassed and ashamed because you just caused a scene. All of a sudden, people are asking if you're ok, and we all know that just makes it worse. They either offer to help you clean up or eye the mess with judgement and neither of those options feel good.

Lucanis is a mage-killer. He was hired to kill mages, something he's done hundreds of times. And yes it's a near impossible task and he gets so close the first time, but when his reality and sense of self is already shaken, any little jostle can threaten the delicate balance he's trying to hold on to.

-

Inner Demons is probably my favorite quest out of the entire game. It is such a fantastic representation of how PTSD feels to the body and the mind.

Before Spite even pulls Rook into his host's mind, we see that Lucanis is extremely irritated. He is extremely quick to anger, which was something we haven't really seen from him before. He's gotten annoyed with others, but never raised his voice. Here, he's snapping at Viago and growling about how he doesn't know how to deal with the situation. Teia is definitely not helping when she tells Lucanis to reason with Viago, applying more pressure when the poor thing is already pulled so tight, he's about to break.

A common symptom of PTSD is that sudden and explosive anger at seemingly small things. I once got so mad while trying to hang curtains, that I literally ripped the bracket out of the wall, threw it, screamed, then broke down sobbing.

Once Spite pulls Rook into Lucanis's mind, they're confronted with four different people they have to get past to get to the heart of the prison, where Lucanis has barricaded himself. It's pretty obvious these are protective walls he's built for himself, to keep people out and to keep the parts of himself he's ashamed of inside. However, we can already see these walls starting to crumble, because the first room Rook steps into, the outer most wall, is supposed to be their room.

Rook: Nobody's here. Spite: Of course not. Rook can't be here. Rook: Why not? Spite: You open doors. You don't close them.

Through the constant support Rook has given Lucanis, he's starting to allow some of the damaged parts of him show around them, whether it's a conscious or unconscious decision. He's starting to feel safe around them.

This is massive. I mentioned above that showing that vulnerability, that "damaged" side of one's self can be full of so much embarrassment and shame, but finding those people you can be your entire self with? Scars and breakdowns and everything, and they still love and support you without judgement? That shit is priceless. I can't put into words how good that feels. I love seeing Lucanis find that person. (I love being that person when I play the game.)

Deeper into the prison, Rook meets with Lucanis's version of Caterina, Harding, Neve, and Illario, each getting more vulnerable with what they say and represent.

I like Harding's scene in particular. If Rook takes Harding with them to free Lucanis, she is not quiet about how she doesn't trust Lucanis, how abominations only bring trouble and pain. Then afterwards, she boldly threatens him with a rather twisted arrow, one she bought specifically to use against him, should he turn against her and her friends. Later on, well before the Inner Demons quest, they have this conversation:

Lucanis: Harding, I am giving the arrow back to you. Harding: What? No! I gave you that to show you that I trust you. Lucanis: And I am giving it back to show that I trust you.

Beautiful. Stunning. One of my favorite party dialogs in the game. It shows their development perfectly, and all with just 3 lines.

But it makes her appearance in the prison fantastic, because Harding refers to Lucanis as "the prisoner," boldly asks Rook if they're sure there ever was a Lucanis and not just the demon, and points out that the mind they're standing in is broken and wrong, that it can't possible belong to a human being. Lucanis trusts Harding at this point, he knows this, understands this, but trauma and fear are never logical. You can know and understand something perfectly, but that doesn't mean your body is going to listen.

Illario gets a really good line, too.

Illario: He'll [Lucanis] carry this prison with him forever, and fill it with corpses, given time.

The theme of the prison is that Lucanis sees himself as a monster after coming back from the Ossuary as an abomination (btw I hate this term and want to burn it out of the game universe.) So, this line is probably talking about how freeing Lucanis from his mind prison would get people killed, because he'll lose control of Spite and go on a rampage and all that.

However, it also makes me think about the fear of losing the people he cares about, because suddenly he carries this trauma that can push or frighten people away. The "corpses" aren't literal, but figurative, to describe the relationships he might lose. Lucanis has his new found family that he cares about, Rook included, and he doesn't want to lose that. All his life, the only thing people wanted from him, saw value in, were his skills as a Crow. That warmth, care, and accepting for parts of himself that have nothing to do with his skills as an assassin, but things he actually likes and enjoys… It's something he's never had before.

-

FINALLY we get to the best part of the mind prison. The part that fucking resonates with me every single time I play the quest.

Rook finds Lucanis standing in the middle of the torture area, where all the tables, corpses, and cages are, where he was cut open and tested on. This is where his trauma truly stems from, so it's really cool that we find him here.

It's pretty neat to see what Spite was referring to all those times he tried to leave when Lucanis was sleeping or when he told Rook that their deal was broken, that he wanted "out." He clearly doesn't understand trauma and mental health when it comes to mortals. So seeing the prison Lucanis’s mind has become, he just assumes it’s the actual prison.

We get a really awesome bit of conversation between the three here.

Spite: He breaks our agreement. His mind. Is still here. He wants. To stay here. So he keeps. ME HERE!! Lucanis: Mierda! Why would I want to stay? Even in my head, this place is a nightmare. Rook: Right, but it's a nightmare you already defeated... I get it now. As painful as the Ossuary was for you, it was better than the alternative. Lucanis: What alternative? Rook: The Ossuary, Zara? Those were problems you could solve with a blade. But healing again? Learning to live life as an abomination? There's no clear answer there. Lucanis: No! I... That is not... Ugh!! Damn it, Rook!!

And it's TRUE!! When healing from trauma, the treatments (therapy, support groups, medication, etc.) are important, but recovering is not straight forward, one size fits all. And that can be so frustrating and scary. I can only speak for myself here, of course, but I was so angry all the time. I didn't sign up for this shit, for this extra work, this fight for normalcy and sense of myself again, when I already had it. In an instant, my life was flipped upside down and shaken out, like a puzzle that showed a picture of who I am, but was chucked at the ground to be reduced to pieces, and now I had to work to put it together again. It's also not easy to admit that something is wrong, that you could be wrong.

Spite turns to Rook:

Spite: Make him leave! Rook, diplomatic option: He's trying to leave, Spite. It's... complicated. Mortals can't just change themselves. It takes a lot of time.

Beautiful. Perfection. Such a great response. Healing, recovery, learning to live the new normal... it's difficult, confusing, and takes such a long time. It can feel like being stuck in a prison, wandering endless, dark hallways with no sign of a possible exit, to the point where you start to wonder if there even is an exit.

The next line Lucanis says is my favorite out of the entire quest. Every time I hear it, I get a little emotional. The first time I went through the quest, I had to pause the game because it hit me so hard.

Lucanis: Rook, you're right. There has to be a way forward. It's just... so much! I cannot see where to begin!

Fuck, man.

I don't think I can properly put it into words how perfect this line of dialog is. This is it. This is what it feels like.

When I first started learning to cope with my PTSD, my therapist told me that her other clients going through a similar journey told her that it took a long time, but they eventually found a light at the end of the tunnel, that hope to overcome the struggle and darkness and weight of it all. I was never a pessimist before my trauma. I was always painfully optimistic, found the good in everything, but this... I didn't believe her. I 100% did not believe that I would find that light. It felt like so much. God, it was suffocating some days, debilitating. It felt like I was being asked to move a goddamn mountain. How was I supposed to move an entire mountain??

The answer, was to move smaller, more manageable rocks, one by one.

To start small.

This is the advice Rook gives Lucanis. They tell him to start small. Find an achievable goal and work towards that. For Lucanis, it's finding common ground with Spite, a goal they can both work towards together.

When the scene eventually comes back to the bar, Lucanis has a lightness to him, clarity. He knows what he needs to do to move forward. This one goal isn't going to get his mind out of the prison it made for itself, but it's getting him moving again, walking forward. The wards and guards have been dealt with, the doors are open.

Healing and learning to meet himself where he's at still won't be easy and there will be set backs, breakdowns, arguments with his inner demon, but every step forward, no matter how small, is progress. Every time Lucanis stumbles and falls, he'll start to remember how to stand back up again, and if he can't do it himself that day, maybe he just doesn't have the strength or he starts looking at the mountain again instead of just the smaller rocks, he's got people there who will take his hand and help him back to his feet, bring his attention back down to the manageable.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk XD

[whatsanapocalaeagain]

Thinking about closeted trans girl Anders and her hair

-Dirty blond, like tossed away bronze, turning a vibrant gold with enough sunlight

-Crying while she cuts it herself, without a mirror, with medical scissors, because it looks too feminine and she can't be a girl, there's no point, she's going to die before it matters anyway

-Merrill braiding it like her clan's hunters do when they're going on a difficult hunt, for luck, when Anders falls asleep at cards

-Justice shining through the stands, cracks in her scalp, when someone reaches for her hair from behind, because she still expects a Templar to grab and yank

-The way she loves it being pulled during sex, making her eyes roll back

-The way it looks like bright copper in firelight

-Anders only knowing the bare minimum in her hair's upkeep because they didn't have things like 'product' in The Circle

-Isabela teaching her how to care for it and encourages her to grow it out and cuts it so that it's healthy and even

-The way she hums and nuzzles when her lover finger combs her hair

-Aveline trying to get Anders to eat more because her thinness is marketing her lose her hair too young.

-The way she holds it to her nose and inhales when she's far from home, because it smells like her lover's pillow

-Varric "mistaking" her for a girl from behind

-Combs, leather hair ties, ribbons, clips, appearing in The Clinic so she can keep it out of her way when she works

-Fenris growling out an insult when he sees her using twine as a make shift hair tie because it catches on her hair and damages it. Anders is a mage, she should have pride like one

-Sebastian braiding it for her when she can't sleep on missions, telling her stories about his cousins and how he learned to do their hair.

-Her giving a lock of her hair or her most precious hair tie as her favor

-Her wearing her hair loose, long, proud, fiery, like the illustrations of Andraste, when the Chantry burns

[imissa3en]

Twst x Fe3h (Fire emblem 3 houses)

I've been playing fe3h a lot since graduation so i figured i'd be fun to make something like this, i don't actually have the dlc so i hope the dlc class assignments i did seemed somewhat correct

General ideas:

1st years would usually be in beginner classes

2nd years in intermediate classes

3rd years in advanced classes

Instead of 3 houses we have 2 schools (3 if we add noble bell but honestly i'm leaning towards only 2)

Instead of the white heron cup the vdc decides who gets to be in the dancer class (which i guess could mean we can have up to 7 dancers??)

Good at flying a broomstick = Good at wyvern/ pegasus riding(?)

I'm planning on ignoring the fact that some classes are genderlocked because i think that locking certain classes behind gender is stupid

Despite the fact that everyone in twst is capable of magic i will be ignoring it because it would be boring if everyone was a mage/warlock/gremory

(Ideas and explanation for class choices under the cut)

Riddle:

I know i said 2nd years get put in intermediate classes but i feel like riddle should be an exception

The only thing stopping him from getting his master class is his his level not being high enough for the certification exams

I'm leaning towards dark knight instead of gremory (he's good riding so why not?)

I feel like his stat growth would be similar to lysithea's

He'd probably have the highest magic growth (His dorm card has the highest attack stat right?)

I think he'd have warp as a spell list?

He'd probably be good at reason, faith and riding

Bad at axes and heavy armor

Trey

A healer and i take no criticism on this

His dorm card is really good defense card with high heals so i think it fits

I think he'd be a less squishy healer (higher defense growth?)

His strength probably wouldn't be bad so maybe he'd excell even if he wasn't a healer

I'm thinking he'd be good at axes and faith

Personal ability would be similar to mercedes (??)

Cater:

Unlike with trey i do take criticism on this because i'm not sure what to class him as

I ended up going with wyvern rider since riddle has a line that says cater's good at flying

I wanna put him as a falcon knight but unfortunately it's a master class and i'd prefer to save that for a timeskip

I feel like he'd be good at lances idk

Maybe his doubles can all be deployed in battle with different classes??

I feel like he might end up being op?

Ace:

Myrmidon but i feel like he can fit into any beginner class tbh

When he gets older he probably becomes a trickster (people who have the dlc please confirm)

Despite both him and deuce being in the same class i figured i'd try to make some differences in their uniform

Decent dancer class candidate (good at swords, no weakness in learning reason or faith, probably decent charm stat)

I feel like he'd be the type to hide in bushes and forests a lot for the high avoidance(?)

Probably has a balanced magic and strength growth

Deuce:

Another myrmidon but with different intermediate class choices

Would probably go into thief or mercenary

Although i think archer is pretty good fit?

Obvious advanced class choice would probably be assassin

Another good dancer candidate (good at swords, high speed stat, budding talent in reason)

Unfortunately i feel like he'd suffer in the charm department but that can probably be fixed with stat boosters and tea parties

After that we can class him as a dancer with the +20 sword avo and he'd be a dodge tank

Alternatively he can be a brawler?? Instead of training him in sword we can go down the brawler path so he can be a war master in end game

[robo-milky]

SSR Birthday Bloom! Cloche

[CLOCHE’ BIRTHDAY BASH EVENT! CLOSED]

Summon:

"Have I actually been grinning to myself the whole time? …Fine, it’s my birthday…”

[Voicelines Below]

Groovy: [Locked]

Summon Line: You’d think that at least one person from a group of 6 would have some sense of composition, but I’m happy nonetheless. It’s too bad that this broom stays on the ground.

Home: I must look like a mage now.

Home Idle 1: No orders, no pestering, it’s a nice change of pace for once.

Home Idle 2: So many birthday cards… I don’t want to put that much effort into fitting them into a single spread, but I also don’t want to waste more pages too.

Home Idle 3: A letter addressed to me from “Noble Bell College”? That’s odd, I don’t recall having acquaintances in other arcane institutions aside from Royal Sword…

Home Idle Login: Sure, Ramshackle dorm looks a little livelier now, but who exactly do they think is going clean up after all the streamers— I can sit back…? Well, I hope you can meet my standards of clean.

Home Idle Groovy: [Locked]

Home Tap 1: Master Vil gave me a DVD of the Fairest Queen’s animation. Want to watch it together, some time?

Home Tap 2: Laser pointers, feathers, and freeze dried chicken bits… What unique gifts from Master Idia.

Home Tap 3: I thought Master Epel would be one of the first to wish me a happy birthday, but he’s been glaring at me from afar all day. I wonder if I did something to upset him.

Home Tap 4: Master Rook said he’d give me anything as a present, so I asked for hug and pat on the head, hehe~

Home Tap 5: I’m grateful for the wishes from everyone, but it’s a little overwhelming. I’ll head out for a bit; I don’t mind you coming along.

Home Tap Groovy: [Locked]

[aldisobey]

Al I saw a TikTok of someone pumping shrimp in a mudflat and I thought of Worne because of your fic. "Everything reminds me of him," we all sigh in unison. Emmrich and I are the same.

I need you to know. I’ve laughed so hard at this. Sincerely hurt my sides. Limitless joy. I didn’t know how to respond. I still don’t. We are infected. I’m sighing in unison with you. It made me write.

——-

“A plague.”

Emmrich announced with some gravity and a dramatic flick of the hand. A preacher mounting pulpit from the chair near the fire. The rest of the Veilguard peered towards the mage. Distracted from their game of Wicked Grace where they sat stripped of most apparel. All save Rook. Grinning from the head of the table. He seemed extra pleased with a free distraction, kept dancing cards in play as his compatriots turned to hear a word.

“Explain.” Lucanis broke silence first. He still had undergarments. And boots for some reason. Worne never wanted those boots.

Emmrich leaned forward, elbows on knees, mildest sway as he pressed hands together and put steepled fingertips to lips. “Rook, is a plague, my dear Lucanis.” The mage kept his eyes locked on the fire. “An infection.”

No one had been counting the necromancer’s drinks. Seeing the flush on pale cheeks Harding headed over, she was still graced with pants. They all figured the Professor a sensible sort, not one to get too deep into his cups. But when Harding lifted the whiskey bottle Emmrich had near to refill glass at hand, she nearly smacked her face with it. The thing was empty.

“You okay Emmrich?” She asked hesitatingly, her face flushed from the wine of the night, threw a look back at Taash. She might need help.

“Never better. Perfectly lucid. Thinking more clearly than ever before. Explain. Yes?” Emmrich straightened, searched for Lucanis, found instead Neve’s cool glance from the end opposing Rook. She was wise enough to abstain from cards. Lifted a glass in greeting to the look, and smirked. “Do go on, Professor. I’d love to hear your conclusions.”

“He’s a plague.” Emmrich tutted.

“You said that.” said Taash. They had exited the game. Retained a singular article of clothing. They were waiting for Lace to be done for the night, looked between her and Emmrich with questioning.

“Ah.” Emmrich leaned back, looked up, “So I did.” Closed his eyes. Took in a deep breath. And then heard the giggles. Rook was sneering at the hand he held. Emmrich’s eyes flicked open, and he turned, snapped that attention to the rogue. “There. There it is. You. Pandemic’s flare. Rampant plague.”

“So I’ve heard.” Worne chuckled. “Davrin. That’s your pants.” He pronounced with no small amount of further delight as he laid a card.

“Hold a moment, Worne.” Davrin put out an arm to still Rook, maybe keep him in place.

Emmrich’s attention hadn’t left. And the rogue squirmed for the first time, locked in by warrior’s arm, and felt the seering glare from his mage backed by fire. He peeked away from the game, and caught flickering green in that…oh it wasn’t adoring hazel. It was something else entirely. Something dark. Ominous. Rook slowly put his cards on the table. Reached to finish his beer with hefty swallow.

“You.” The word came again. Accompanied with movement this time. Emmrich stood, had prepared the advance. And the whiskey sway left him as purpose locked to target. Towering he crossed the few feet to table. Looked down at smirking man. “Rook.” A deep rolled accusation in tone. Worne only smiled as he looked up at the lengthy Nevarran, lips locked to bottle as he raised brows in questioning ‘me?’

“You’ve infected us all. Manfred nearly fell in a river trying to obtain a stick for you.”

“I’m honored to be thou…”

“Hush darling I’m not done.” That’s when Worne felt the long fingers clasp into place around his shoulder. Davrin leaned away. The necromancer had Rook in hand now, voice lower, layered in confidence of drink, “Harding stopped me in the market to laugh at a greased pig.”

The dwarf laughed again, she had wandered back to the table, found her way to Taash’s side. “He squealed like one over a bath!” She couldn’t stop the chuckles at that point. Infection caught.

Emmrich’s fingers drummed on Rook’s shoulder. “Lucanis can’t look at cheese without cursing your name.”

“Mierda. Rook. I can’t keep it stocked…” Lucanis shook his head, grumbled about being out of it again tonight. He had to rework the morning’s menu, could never count on cheese.

“Davrin, has suffered longest, just look at him,” Emmrich gestured to the warrior, nearly flicked the elf’s shoulder as Davrin leaned forward in the middle movement of removing his pants. He buckled in laughter, caught a breath,

“Yeah Rook, you’re really fucking the turlum training. Assan thinks you're his brother and you need to behave. Be a better example.”

“Exactly. Exactly. You’re leading this group. And Neve…”

Worne laid a hand over Emmrich’s on his shoulder, the touch cut off the voice, mage trailed to a hmm as rogue patted the fingers digging into his shoulder for balance. “Neve is perfect and beautiful and I’d never do a thing to harm or hinder her.” Rook blew a kiss to the detective. She gave a soft chuckle and nodded.

Emmrich blustered a moment, face gone red, “Yes. But. Neve delights in chasing trouble. She’s made a profession of the work you make for others I dare say.”

“Emmrich how could you?” Neve called out. She had moved over to Lucanis now. Located a blanket and draped it over him. “Calling your darling ‘plague’.”

“Look what’s he’s done to Bellara!” Emmrich practically shouted, and used a great sweeping arm to point at the elf in the far couch corner giggling, writing feverishly. “She can’t stop!”

“Oh she just knows romance when she sees it.” Worne twisted his head and kissed the fingers holding him in place, the hand Emmrich now leaned swaying on to keep from falling. Soft lips stirred a flicker of movement in the tall man, his mouth dropped a hair, face flushed burning redder still. But Worne ignored his effect and waved at his friend instead. “Let me know when the next chapter needs a beta read Bell!”

“Oh, sure thing Rook.” Bellara announced with cheer and a bit of a shaky smirk, “You know I could use your help with some details after that date… ”

“We can’t get through Hossberg without Emmrich crying at a muddy hole.” Taash snorted. Cut off the previous. Refused to hear more about that night. Though the beginnings of a laugh were hidden somewhere deep beneath the disgust.

“I. Taash. Well.” Emmrich stammered. The room was in movement. “Thank you. For the input.” Worne laughed first. And then the rest joined in. Hossberg was a difficult land to traverse these days. And it wasn’t for fear of darkspawn.

“We’re here to kill gods.” Emmrich sighed as night's joy continued, almost sank to a chair as he leaned against Rook, held his forehead in his other palm, “But we’ve been plagued by constant thoughts of you.”

Worne stood then. Kept his hand tight on his shoulder to steady Emmrich. The other arm went to hold the necromancer by the thin waist. Fingers curled on hip to draw him snuggly in. A lucky thing. Emmrich looked liable to topple over, but the Warden had him now. Leaned up on tiptoe to whisper to an ear.

“I’m sorry I make you all feverish.”

“Dearest…”

“All hot beneath the collar,”

A piece of bread hit Worne squarely between the eyes. Ceased the flirtation with a thunk.

“Take your plague to bed!” Davrin spoke stern but chuckling. Stood as tall and wide as he might baring his chest. “Or I’ll end both you monsters.”

Worne giggled and dipped his head at his fellow. “I’ll see the patient to his quarters.”

“I’ll expire under your care.” Emmrich continued spouting off, but he was leaning into the virus now. Full warmth of drink and familiar touch of hands renewing the flood of words as the mind didn’t have to concern itself with simple things like balance.

“Will thoughts of you never cease?” The professor turned in the walking embrace to stare at Rook as the rogue led them both out of the dining hall. Calls of good night echoed behind them. Rook gave waves and nodded along to Emmrich’s stream of thought. “I swear everywhere I look…I observed a student in Nevarra just yesterday take an entire minute and more to unwrap a treat.”

“Mhm, are you calling me sweet?” Worne smirked as they entered the open air of Fade.

“Ye..no. Listen. A full length of time to free the thing. And then he dropped it. I swear it bounced off his boot.” Rook sniffed at that, a mourning sound, but Emmrich waved a hand, almost unbelieving, “He ate it!” Worne nodded. Naturally, as one does.

But Emmrich continued in horror, “And dearest that’s when sickness struck over your absence. I missed you then. Over that. I could hardly oversee the coursework! I rushed back first chance. Skipped a luncheon, did you know?”

“Well let’s do lunch tomorrow then.” Rook almost sang as they entered the Lighthouse. Turned right for the stairs, Emmrich heavier on him now.

“Rook, darling that’s not the point, the issue…” Emmrich paused. There was a long thin tube leaning against the wall near the entrance to Rook’s quarters. An elven contraption of some sort? “…what is that?”

“Oh?” Worne’s eyes nearly sparkled. “Bellara must have finished the prototype!” He left Emmrich a moment. Made sure he was steady and firm against the wall to his room. Ran like a kid on Wintersend to the device. Pulled at the top of it. It must be… “A pump!”

Emmrich groaned. Leaned on the wall like the dead walking and stumbled down the hallway to his room.

“Emmrich! We can go catch shrimp at the mudflats after lunch!” Distantly he could hear the man testing the device but the mage didn’t catch anything further. Collapsed instead on the marble slab. Heat of plague refreshed against the cold. Best rest while he could, the infection showed no signs of slowing.

[vermilionsun]

I've seen everyone post their Touchstarved MCs, so I thought why not show you mine as well :)

(Aka, can you tell I'm indecisive?)

Akachi: The Unnamed

“I prefer to count my blessings.”

Pronouns: she/they

Birthday: January 16th — Firstborn; The date the priests took her in

Appearance:

Hair: wavy, mid-thigh length / later shoulder length, white

Skin: very very pale

Eye colour: Gold

Height: 174 cm / 5’7’’

Personality: Benevolent Deceiver — The Sun

Likes: Board games, drinking competitions, children, fairy lights, dressing up, perfumes and nice scents

Dislikes: bad-smelling things, being underestimated, rudeness, being unable to control themselves, the Senobium’s Abess

Fatal Flaw: Can’t seem to break free of their past

Other: 

Thinks of their little group as a found family

Isn’t as hesitant with her hand movements since they grew up unafraid of the curse disguised as a blessing

Isn’t that much into romantic stuff — sure she might fool around a bit with Leander and Kuras but they have made sure they knew beforehand

Have shamelessly commented on Leander’s abs more than once

Loves playing with the children of Lowtown

Considers becoming a teacher someday after getting rid of their curse

She has made living arrangements with Kuras opposed to staying at the Wick (later), but then again, they hang around there more often

Mourns their childhood

Has said “I swear upon my name” when mad multiple times out of habit

Had a mental breakdown once after a very bad encounter and ended up cutting her hair (cutting their hair was forbidden during their days at the temple, and at that moment they felt the need to do something to regain some sense of control over herself), until Aeron found and comforted them before anything worse could happen

Is both super open and very secretive about what they went through in the temple, depends on their mood, honestly

The moment they learned there is an Abess in the Senobium, she immediately got a very bad feeling about the place. They try to excuse it to their past experiences with the cult’s Abbot, but their feelings have never proved her wrong.

Background:

The priests found her in the wastelands surrounding the temple. Some priests argued they were born of the Allmother’s opposing deity, and wanted to sacrifice them in her name, but most were against it and thought of them as a divine gift.

She grew up as a gentle, kind child, but was denied contact with the world outside the temple. That didn’t stop her from periodically escaping to see travelling troupes.

One day, a mage arrived and went berserk the moment she saw them, telling her she had been lied to and revealing the truth of their curse, claiming they raised a child with the same exact curse. The priests escorted her out immediately but it was too late. Akachi escaped that very night.

Arrived in Eridia with the caravan

Relationships:

Kuras — liked

Finds him generally pleasant and amusing, albeit a little scary. If either ever has free time, they take each other on long walks.

Leander — close and disliked

Can see right through Leander’s charm, but plays the whole “how was I supposed to know about how the world works when I was locked away in a remote temple?” innocent card. She knows something's wrong and if they aren't proven right by the end of her stay in Eridia, they swear upon themself she’ll turn back to the temple and curse them out. Truth be told, they find Leander's desperation to get close to her funny.

Vere — close

Has to resist banging their head against the nearest surface whenever he opens his mouth, but finds it very difficult to do so. Hates herself for grinning at his stupid jokes and definitely doesn’t enjoy going shopping with him… or gossiping… or—

Ais — liked

Drinking buddies. With him, Akachi found out she’s practically immune to alcohol. One time she carefully entered the Seaspring, only for Ais to pull them out as soon as he saw her. For some reason, he seems incredibly protective over her after that.

Mhin — liked and disliked

Doesn’t mind them around. Neither seems threatened by the other, there is just this odd dynamic where they can’t figure out what they want from each other

Stats:

Strength — 1

Luck — 3

Wisdom — 3

Empathy — 4

Astuteness — 4

Flower: Snapdragon (Carnation) [True flower — date flower]

Aeron: The Hound

“If I could turn time back, I simply wouldn’t.”

Pronouns: he/him

Birthday: August 19th — Second Born; He chose the date he made his first kill

Appearance:

Hair: wavy, short, dirty blonde/brune

Skin: tan

Eye colour: Gold

Height: 182 cm / 6’0’’

Has a healed scar on his right cheek and a few faded ones on the rest of his body

Personality: Miscellaneous Harbinger — The Moon

Likes: Books, dogs, music, good company, origami, Mhin

Dislikes: Incompetence, loneliness, someone—or even worse he himself—hurting his family

Fatal Flaw: Always believes he takes the best course of action, even if he doesn’t

Other:

Is actively trying to quit smoking

The moment he had money in his hands, he went into the first bookshop he found in Lowtown and bought a book

The best shoulder to cry on & is a cuddly bear

Has earned the title “mother hen” from a few people

He fell for Mhin almost instantly

Stays at the Wick with Arioch

Aeron is the most protective of the three, watching over the other two despite being the middle child

Has become an errand boy and picks up orders for the Wick

Soft spot for that one macabre–themed bakery hidden in a corner of Lowtown

Generally tries to start fresh, avoids committing crimes anymore and hopes he can find a cure at some point

But if needed, he will punch a bitch without hesitation

Always carries a weapon with him, out of habit—usually a handy dagger

Background:

Grew up with a group of orphans in the streets of another city, which they had to eventually abandon due to the increase of Soulless.

Arrived in Eridia with his best friend, who then betrayed and stabbed him, leaving him to die in an alleyway.

Thankfully, that alleyway was the one behind the Wet Wick, and Leander found him quickly.

Relationships:

Kuras — liked

He and Kuras don’t have a particular relationship. They greet each other, maybe engage in small talk once in a while—probably about novels. Aeron’s a frequent visitor to the clinic, either for errands or tending attention to any injuries. Kuras’ also the one who encouraged Aeron to pursue a relationship with his siblings

Leander — close

Good friends. Leander saved him, got him a place to stay for free and even a job right after he was betrayed, effectively saving him from an alternative timeline of chaos and bloodshed that would have gotten him killed. Aeron came to realise that soon enough and promised to repay Leander as soon as he could… except for the drinks; those are, again, on Leander, right?

Vere — liked

Loves this bitch to death, for fuck’s shake. The banter is top tire and so is the unhinged flirting. Of course, they both eye someone else, but practice never hurt anyone, did it?

Ais — liked

The moment Aeron saw Princess, he was on his knees petting her and cooing at her, which immediately put him on Ais’ good side. He doesn’t mind pet sitting this “adorable fluffless ball of sunshine,” as he has called her. Despite all that, Ais is a bad influence for him when it comes to smoking. But, Ais is also his to–go person to help hide a body, if he ever needs it again.

Mhin — liked, developing to close

“Oh damn,” were Aeron’s first words when he saw them. Not quite a romantic at heart until that very moment. Loves to tease them, hoping to get them flustered or at least get pinned to a wall by them again. Mhin seemed to actively try to avoid him at first, then they warmed up, until they pulled away and the cycle repeated itself over and over again. But that’s fine; Aeron doesn’t mind waiting.

Stats:

Strength — 3

Luck — 2

Wisdom — 1

Selflessness — 3

Reading — 4

Flower: Sunflower (Gladiolus) [True flower — date flower]

Arioch: The Alchemist

“Isn’t life too short to be sad?”

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday: June 30th — Third Born; The date their “mother” told them they were born

Appearance:

Hair: none/bald

Skin: dark

Eye colour: Gold

Height: 165 cm / 5’2’’

Is blind in his left eye due to an experiment going wrong. The colour hasn’t changed much, but it looks more faded

Personality: Unforgiven Innocent — The Star

Likes: Dancing, bubbly potions, bad jokes, sweets, journaling, earrings, Kuras

Dislikes: silence, small spaces, lemonade, Vere

Fatal Flaw: They trust way too easily

Other: 

Sees Kuras as a father figure

and also helps him around in the clinic

Gives the best gifts

Has a snack with them at all times

Always perches in a high place whenever possible. Like, they never sit normally. Is that a bird? Is it a plane? Nope! It’s Arioch sitting on a random rooftop!

Has developed abandonment issues

Often suppresses their own emotions and thoughts, maintaining such strict self-control that it occasionally leads to overwhelming impulses to violently destroy something

Once upon a time, they accidentally left their journal unattended and a very sneaky and totally mysterious individual made quick, yet very detailed, sketches of everyone mentioned in there on Arioch’s extra sticky papers

Stays at the Wick with Aeron

Background:

The exiled mage found them abandoned in the wastelands as a baby. She decided to take them in the moment she saw them and raise them as her own

They found out their “mother” was cultivating them as a test subject through some forgotten notebooks. They couldn’t even finish reading before they bailed out of there with what little they had on them that moment.

They literally walked to Eridia, surprisingly without trouble, although they might have noticed some turfs of red hair suddenly appearing here and there as they were getting closer to the city

Ended up stumbling in the Seaspring’s temple

If they had flipped to the last pages, they would have seen her regret and abandonment of her original plans.

The mage was searching for them until the day she died, yet never found them. The closest she got was when she came across Akachi’s cult temple.

Relationships:

Kuras — close

Has grown attached to him. Not in the “I always wanted a father,” sense but in the “you make me feel comfortable enough and you take care of me and we don’t mind me being myself,” kind of sense.

Leander — liked

They find him a little pushy and overdramatic, but other than that they have no reason not to like him yet. It’s nice to let go of those damn bandages for a few moments… or hours—

Vere — disliked

Avoids him if they can. They get an uncanny feeling, like the foxian resides in every shadow they pass. Too much knowledge has hurt them in the past, so they simply don’t want to know whether they’re being hunted down like prey or they're just delusional.

Ais — liked

Definitely wants to see Princess again, but is too afraid to leave the city for now. Ais is all but encouraging them not to visit. They like to joke around with him, though Ais’ violent… solutions are stirring something in them they’d like not to name

Mhin — liked and disliked

They are each other's confront person. They will cuss each other out, then sit at the stairs behind Kuras’ clinic and feed the cats while chewing on sweets. Arioch is Mhin’s first taste of what a family would look like.

Stats:

Strength — 2

Luck — 5

Wisdom — 2

Kindness — 4

Confidence — 3

Flower: Peony (Rose) [True flower — date flower]

Timeline of events:

The triplets Akachi, Aeron and Arioch were born and left in different places (January 14th)

Aeron begins his journey to Eridia with his best friend

Arioch finds out the truth and runs away to Eridia

Akachi finds out the truth via Arioch’s “mother” and runs away to Eridia

Arioch stumbles upon the Seaspring temple

Aeron is betrayed and stabbed & Akachi’s caravan gets attacked

Leander finds Aeron and tends to his wounds, Kuras heals Akachi, Arioch stumbles upon Vere

Arioch gets a room at the Wick and stays there till nighttime

Akachi meets with Leander & then Vere, before heading for the Senobium

Akachi meets with Ais

Aeron wakes up and settles down at the bar, soon meeting with Vere and Ais

Akachi gets attacked again by the Soulless, meets with Mhin and returns to the Wick accompanied by Mhin and Kuras

At the same exact time, Aeron is drinking green booger–shots at the bar (still bandaged up), Arioch descends the stairs and Akachi enters the Wick.

They all just freeze, staring at each other

“Is that a new trend? Foreigners dressing up with bandages, looking all mysterious?” Vere breaks the moment

It takes the three a while to figure out what the actual fuck before Ais casually mentions: “You could be siblings. You kind of look alike. Not to mention…” your curse isn’t said, but heavily implied

Dynamics:

It does take them a little while—especially Aeron—to make a decision on how to move forward.

Arioch knew the moment they made the connection that they didn’t want to lose a potential bond.

As for Akachi… she’s always wanted siblings, so why not give it a shot?

All three just want to protect each other from what they went through

[kabutoden]

Fan classes? Uh, judge of Void, dose that mean they can like, rule it or lock it away or?

YEAH! Fan classes. From left to right, the rogue here's from cannon but the Dunce of Blood and Judge of Void are not. I only have 2 fan classes out of the full set of 36 trolls, mostly because I didn't want to dupe any cannon classpect combos so these guys were a kind of 'get out of jail free' card or way for me to experiment more when I just had a funny idea. Below the cut is some writing on the subject:

Dunce of Blood. Orthid, once much more judgmental and skeptical, has graduated from getting involved in others business. Instead she acts with blind faith, relaxed and confident. Her support is invaluable, and she doesn’t need to know anything for her bonds to stay strong. Dunce is class empowering blind faith. Where as a mage suffers the consequence of knowing, a dunce needs to know nothing and suffers not. It’s sort of an ‘idiot savant’ type ability.

Judge of Void. As a jadeblood believer of culling, Themis judges the ways in which others are inadequate and wishes to impose fate on them. A judge is a leadership position who excises control over players and their aspect. Essentially, she judges about them what is VOID, what is WORTHLESS. Themis can create black holes and dismiss other player’s powers for some time. However, perhaps the void aspect of her powers mean her ‘judgements’ themselves are what mean truly nothing. When their judgments are denied or made obsolete by others, the judge loses their control.

When Orthid learns that her hemoanon best friend is a purpleblood, she has a bit of a crisis because she didn't expect that. She's also struggling as a former hemoanon herself being forced to represent her own bloodtype and being seen that way by others. To make matters worse, society is pushing the two apart. Orthid's godtier represents her moving past worrying about stuff like that so she can once more embrace her friendships, and as a dunce, everything just sort of 'works out.'

Themis on the other hand was intended to be a villain leader character, who's irritated by the blatent disrespect for the hemocaste and society itself put on display by her fellow players. She believes one job of jadebloods is to cull grubs showing signs of being too weak to live or not contributing to the empire--this is conflated with Artemis, the greek god of the hunt, as one of the god's domains was killing young girls and babies. Essentially, she held dominion of both the life and death of girls. There's a metaphor conflating deadly birth defects with invisible arrows--doing just enough, highly precise damage to take the little one's life. Additionally, jadebloods are expected to be a group of virgin nuns, not unlike Artemis's hunters. I know lots of people like Artemis, but it's important to remember she was a complex figure. I think Themis can represent that in a really interesting way, as she carries with her a cruel responsibility she believes is incredibly important.

[magebastard]

a rarer height

wc: 1019

ship: loua ‘rook’ mercar x lucanis dellamorte

rating: t

notes: datv spoilers! plotless mush! this ran away from me and i want it OUT of my head! prob takes place after the romance lock-in point or a time shortly after.

—

It’s foolish.

She should leave their cozy kitchen in their cozy nook of their deceptively cozy dining hall.

Instead, Loua brings a scalding cup of bitter, black coffee to her lips and leans incorrigibly against the counter. She watches his hands while he works. He hums as he cooks for them all. She wonders if it’s truly an idle habit or if he’s keeping himself awake.

Before this mess began, she remembers her blood racing and heart warming to the sight of deadly competence. Her fellow Shadows exuding the strength of righteous purpose. Combat prowess, stratagem, kindness and authority. She had a type, damn it.

The hearth fire casts the chamber in a golden glow. No one else is in this hall and Lucanis is quietly humming and murmuring measurements to himself.

“If I wanted to poison you, I assure you I’d already have done so,” he’d teased with one of those angular, jabbing smiles on his face. And, well, he could have. It wouldn’t even be difficult. She’d drink poison from the cups of his rough, quick hands if he kept his eyes on hers. He wouldn’t even have to try. What a dissatisfying kill for an adept assassin.

It’s confusing more than it is anything else. Lucanis is competent, authoritative and kind. And her heart did respond to those things. A torchlight in her chest, bright and undeniable.

Though it’s negligible beside the inferno made of him when they are at rest.

The trouble is (and the thrill is) that he’s shy. Not traditionally—no stammering, no fumbling. It’s sweeter. Reserved. When Loua freely pours her affection out for him, he stares for just a moment. At first, she worried she’d made him uncomfortable. And wouldn’t that be an awkward card, in the already nightmarish hand of circumstance?

They’d been walking, leisurely strolling through the canal district. Meeting Illario for coffee in Treviso, before it all went sour. Killing time had become novel enough to delight and Loua felt drunk with it. A violet hue from the city’s mage lights colored the night and the cut of his cheeks handsomely.

“It’s a beautiful city.” she’d said.

“It is.” he’d replied so fondly.

“It certainly suits you.”

Loua remembers the breath where she thought she’d fucked up immeasurably. Lucanis had stared straight ahead for a long beat. She would have bet that he’d kindly rebuff her for her boldness. His jaw worked over and over as if he were chewing on his words. She almost backpedaled to free him from having to say anything at all.

But the seismic upward quirk of his lips and the mirth in his tired, dark eyes stilled something in her, in turn. It wasn’t fair. She had to be clever and charming to disarm him and all he had to do was look. All the odds in the Thedas were stacked against her. The blighted, hateful non-gods must be cackling to themselves at the weakness of the fool sent to slay them.

Things had only gotten more pathetic from there.

But Lucanis began relenting in inches, showing his own attachment to her in turn.

Zara was dead and Illario would face retribution, soon. Loua had her own ideas but there was no chance she’d voice them to him, now. Especially not now.

Loua watches him with a dry throat and starving eyes. It all goes beyond the stir of attraction or even the glowing affection. How could a killers’ hands be the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen? How could she be so entirely arrested by a look? How could her heart crack open in her chest now, when it needs to be firmer—sharper than it has ever been?

She‘s never been in love. Is it supposed to ache like this?

“You must know I can sense you staring. You’re confusing Spite.”

It’s the most carefree thing he’s said since their prison break from the Ossuary in his mind. And void, isn’t that a relief? She had a needling worry that they’d have to start over, now that he had a more comfortable respite from Spite’s intervention.

To see him loose and light with rolled up sleeves and a serene look on his face stayed her fears. Quite a few of them, actually.

“You’re such a sap,” Neve had said, in his minds eye. Perhaps she should feel chided. But with the world ending and when moments like this are so fleeting and fractured, balancing on a knifes’ edge? If holding on with both hands makes her a sap, then that is a fine thing to be.

Loua tilts her head and knows she’s not imagining the way his eyes follow hers with an assassins’ focus. Nor that confounding quirk of a smile.

“The way you cook reminds me of my momae.” Oh, she hadn’t meant to say that. That wasn’t very romantic at all. Why did she say that?

But the quirk stretches to a full, attentive beam and the particulars of her fumbling didn’t matter then. “Go on,” he says. She could melt.

“She loved it—having a real kitchen. My mothers grew up largely traveling and settling in the woods. My momae loved to cook. I don’t think she ever got over the joy of having a full kitchen. You just seem—well, I don’t know. Content, maybe? It’s nice.” Loua shrugs, reaching for a casual gesture to release the anxious, cloying weight in her chest. “Seeing you this way, I mean. It’s always nice.” It’s remarkable. I’ve watched you sail with spectral wings across battlegrounds, landing precise and graceful strikes through our enemies hearts with the fervor and care of an artist—but nothing, nothing has ever stolen breath from me the way that watching you methodically chop vegetables with a smile has.

Lucanis sets down the knife. Rests his hands on the countertop as if he were bracing himself. His head tilts now and she follows the movement carefully with her eyes. They stand there, like fools, grinning at each other in the hearth light.

“I would not say content, just yet. We have quite a to-do list, yes? But there is—“ his jaw works as he searches for the words she hangs on. “There is no small relief in feeling at home somewhere. With someone, perhaps.”

The weight; the anxious, vibrating stone in her chest opens like a yawning primrose. Something tender and raw and bruise-violet hangs between them. It’s not tension, it’s reaching. Loua burns for him and she cannot remember a time she wanted so deeply, something to keep.

The world is burning. Now is not the time for this. She sips the coffee he’s made for her. It’s warm in her hands.

“Yes,” she says. Too quiet, too soft. “I know exactly what you mean.”

[mareteart]

Meet my MTA OC:

✨Lock✨

Luciano Echeverría was a kid that has it all, a good and wealth family, good health, a secure future in the furniture bussiness of his father and a chance to go to Praga with her mother to be a model like her, and he was raised to be good in aspects related to both worlds, so when he growns up, he’ll pick one of those options as his career.

When Luciano reached 20 years old, started studing after a year in Praga with her mom, but none of those things makes him feel trully happy, he wanted a third option: doing shows in scenarios, but not as a model, but as a juggler, using all kind of knifes, cards and stuff like that.

His mother rejected the idea entirelly and was cold and distant with him after that, his father in the other hand, gave him a secret bank account and money to help him start in his dream. Days later Luciano talked to his father and went to follow his dream, Mr. Echeverría died from a heart attack and Luciano didn’t talked to his mother since then. (With one exception, the had ONE talk one time, but it was so small that didn’t even count as a conversation to me tbh hahaha).

Luciano is part of a poly relationship with Priscilla, Cayden and Vicky, and the four of them usually meet in his apartment, they’re really different, but they all love and support each other. [I’m gonna make an entire post of this later]

7 years later, “Loki”, the knife juggler (that’s Luciano’s artistic name and the alias his friends gave him for his dextery with cards and knifes), was in his first big scenario, this was his moment and all the effort spent in his dream was to be there, the light were on, the people was clapping as he was doing the show, everything was perfect, every- *TWOJH*

A mistake! A deadly one… one of the machetes he was using in his juggling trick crave right into his left shoulder, the audience was in shock, Luciano was in shock and before anyone could react, a second machete hit almost the same spot, making his arm fly off a few steps away. (Lots of blood, lots of screams, just one arm)

3 strangers that were sitting at the end of the place, stand up and did something to the shocked audience and everyone left the place, then, in total calm, appeared in front of Luciando and told him this was something that was destined to happend, so he could awake as a “mage”.

After a long conversation, they told him he should pick a mage name or something??? So Luciano, in a kind of mock of the bad luck of the situation, called himself Lock (luck with an O).

Lock joined the Hermetics, more specifically, the Fortunae house, being the only member (and representative) of the house in Concepcion City, so he always dress a little elegant or tidy (he likes to look good, something he got from his mother).

His Avatar is a ghost hand that appears from his left shoulder, replacing what was his old left arm, has a mouth and an eye, piercings and wristbands. (You can ask for more info)

Lock has two sides: the hermetic who do his best to show what he has and the guy who enjoy going to party, gambling and go crazy.

He also knows that the accident was just the first step of something even bigger, there’s a destiny he has to fulfilled, he don’t know what it is, he just know there’s one, and that’s the only thing that makes him believe in himself and his Magic, at least until he joined his new group.

Today, Lock is 27 years old and is the lider of the cabal LosTrés, cosider by many, many, many, MANY, people (maybe) THE BEST CABAL OF CONCEPCION CITY and he’s doing all he can to upgrade the cabal status, and for that, he started making deals with other mages and acting according as his rol of hermetic.

Being the lider of the cabal was something really unexpected to Lock, the decision was very casual and he accepted very proudly, little he know that this roll will also gave him something more than responsabilities: a new reason to keep going, he was no longer the only Fortunae of Concepcion City, he’s now part of a real group, and Lock will do his 200% to bring the cabal to the top with him.

The members of his cabal are:

Dither, the virtual adept ( @vikuette )

Gallo de Pelea, the kickass cheff ( @alkanette )

73 52, the 5 star striper ( @aqui-yace-noia )

Monkhbat, he doesn’t really has a bat ( @golcorneta )

And the chronicle is narrated by @camo-art , who is also the creator of Zeke, another hermetic and Lock’s pal.

Favorite song:

Bonus:

In a session, when he was stabbed and almost FUCKING DIED, he told the team about the news in a casual way, followed by a cunty pic because he was loosing blood and wanted to feel better lddkkddk

(The cabal and his pal Zeke went to see him, that’s something that touch deeply in his heart, but he’ll never tell them)

[chaosherald]

Rook Appreciation Week

Day 4 - Laidir

An Adventure Mystery Serial (though we're starting to figure it out!) in Which Everything is Not Exactly as it Seems and Also Very Dangerous (Part 4 of 7)

(Thank you @rookappreciationweek for hosting!)

(Previously or Part 1, Part 2)

Rook Laidir was on a ship, sails taunt in a good tailwind, the ocean shining in the sunlight, hold full of treasure, and it wasn’t home. It was awful. Terrifying. Water forever and she knew she was a small slip from falling, drowning, and no, no, no, no.

Whatever thought, important thought, she has tried to cling to flitted away, lost in the terror and fear and she couldn't swim. Why was she on a ship?!

“Hey.”

Rook looked up. Everything was swaying. That seemed like adding insult to injury. Taash, looking perfectly comfortable on some planks of wood swaying above an unfathomable abyss, towered above her, frowning.

“If you're going to hurl,” they said, placing one of their hands on Rook’s head and turning her to face the side of the ship. “Make sure it goes over the railing.”

“I don’t want to be here,” Rook said, trying to look away from the unending awful freezing death trap sea.

Taash blinked. “What?”

Rook focused. Tried to focus. The water was right there, how could anyone concentrate in these conditions?

Taash was watching her curiously. “Oh, right. You can’t swim. Wait, fuck, Rook? What the fuck?”

Right. Right. Not real. The Fade. Johanna. Danger. This isn’t real. It could absolutely kill them, but it wasn’t actually the ocean and being untethered in the Fade was preferable to being on a real ship. Rook could feel the lines of power around them, keeping Taash locked into a facsimile of their old life, their old home. Trying to push Rook into a role that would fit that story when she jumped into it, to keep it from tearing apart.

She could work with that. Grinning up at Taash, she grabbed their hand. “We’re not on a ship. We’re at the Hilt.”

And they were. Cards and winnings on the table in the blessedly dry and still room. Taash looked around, mouth hanging open. “How did you do that?”

“We're in the Fade. Physically, apparently. I don't remember exactly how we ended up here.”

“I do,” Taash said. “That creepy necromancer.”

“Johanna Hezenkoss,” Rook said grimly.

“Yep. She was trapping spirits. Had that lantern thing. We all confronted her. At the creepy house.”

“And she tore a hole in the veil.” It was coming back to Rook now. “Alright. We can deal with this. We need to get everyone to one spot, find a way to keep ahead of Johanna’s interference, and break our way out.”

Taash leaned back in their chair, snorting. “Easy.”

“With help, it might be.” Rook spread her arms, taking in the room. “We're in Rivain. Kind of. Rivain in the real world is full of spirits, so…”

And speaking it out loud was like unlocking a door. The Hilt was suddenly crowded. Compassion and Adventure. Justice and Audacity. Kindness. Hope. Valor. All looking expectantly at Rook.

Taash was unfazed by the new company, a Lord of Fortune through and through. “You have a plan?”

“I do,” Rook said, grimacing. “Unfortunately it involves going back to the ship.”

Sometime later, Rook stood on the deck of the ship, as far from the rails as she could, watching Taash play captain to a crew of spirits as they sailed a not-sea of raw magic. Now that she knew they were in the Fade, and had a moment to catch her breath without being pulled into different pocket realities by Hezenkoss, she could see the ley lines around her, could feel the tethers between her and her other companions, and could properly manipulate the energies of this place. They had found Bellara and Emmrich, who warned them Johanna had eluded him. The other mages added their energies to navigating while Rook focused on tracking the rest of their friends.

Yes. Yes. I already called you clever. The clever ones are always the first to miss the big questions, though.

Shit. Rook started to call out a warning as she was pulled overboard. She caught a glimpse of demons climbing up the side of the ship as she was submerged in the raw magic.

Oh, but we can't have that can we?

And now it was water, taking back the form of the ocean in the waking world. Panic clawed at her chest as Rook tried to find the surface and tried to find the magic underpinning this corner of the Fade and failed at both. Her friends needed her, but she was drowning, she couldn’t breathe, she was - 

Grabbed from behind and suddenly propelled upwards, out of the water/not really water. Flying.

Looking behind her, she came face to face with Spite. The demon, wings unfurled behind them, grinned. “Found you. They cannot have you. Mine. You and Lucanis.”

“Spite!  Where is Lucanis?”

“On the ship. Fighting demons. They cannot have him. We will go fight. Win.”

“No. I think Johanna is targeting me. Find a spot to put me down, please.”

Spite did so, landing them on a glossy solid surface, though he didn’t seem happy about it. Rook could see the boat in the distance. “I can sense our friends. I think I can use that to get myself to them. I’ve been jumping all over this place, it shouldn't be too hard to do it under my own power. Go help the others and tell them to make for Docktown. Well, the Fade’s version of Docktown. I’m going after Neve.”

With one last look at the ship, Rook reached for the magical thread that felt like Neve and leapt back into the raw Fade.

TBC.

[itsabouttimex2]

Can you write something about platonic yandere with Dilyuk or Almond Cookie?

Yandere Father Almond Cookie

You aren’t happy here. He knows it. You can try to hide it if you’d like, but your father knows you all too well. And there’s no hiding the truth from him.

Nothing has ever been able to hide from him. He unravels secrets and mysteries for a living, snuffing out the truth wherever it hides, no matter how deep it’s been buried. He pulls those truths from the mouths of liars, from the evidence on scene, from his own sharpened intuition.

And your unhappiness is the clearest thing he’s ever seen. The lack of focus in your eyes, your uncoordinated footsteps, the way you’ve been scraping at the dough on your hands while you’re lost in thought.

You’ve been daydreaming again. You always daydream when you start feeling lonely. It seems to be much of what you do these days.

“It isn’t safe enough for you to leave the house. Not yet.”

He never does specify when ‘yet’ is. You don’t think he ever will. Some cynical part of yourself wonders if that far off ‘yet’ will ever come.

It had been one single accident that had landed you on house arrest, through no fault of your own. But it hasn’t mattered whether you had been at fault, not to your father. All that had mattered was that a stray blast of magic; from a mage practicing unlawfully and recklessly, had hit you head on, nearly entirely crumbling the dough of your right arm. You had fallen backwards and hit the ground, jam oozing from the wounds.

Your father had been first on the scene, as usual. A long life of both solving and resolving incidents had left him weary and prepared for most of what the world had to offer him.

Ready for anything but one of his two children lying flat on the ground, dough crumbled and oozing, crying weakly in a curled up ball.

And now, he spends every waking moment acting like it happened just yesterday. Your arm is long healed, tiny white lines across your arm being the only sign of any wound or injury, your jam levels steady and healthy.

Still, he can’t get the image out of his head.

Crying. Bleeding. Broken.

So you have to stay inside, for your own good. If something has happened once, it can happen again. Even though he’s seen to the imprisonment of that careless Cookie that dared harm you, the thought that you might get hurt again sends chills down his dough. You got lucky once. There’s no way to ensure that you’ll get lucky again.

Almond Cookie doesn’t live his life recklessly, and neither will you. No leaving it up to luck, no letting the cards fall where they may, no risking it all on a gamble.

Instead, he’ll keep you locked safely inside, getting to freely roam the house with only Constable Whiskers for company. And though the little black cat does an admirable job of combating your loneliness, he just isn’t a replacement for other Cookies.

Thankfully, this isolation won’t be permanent. His intention truly isn’t to leave you locked up forever, to tend to you until his dough wears out. He will genuinely allow you to leave when he thinks that the world has grow safe enough to accommodate you.

He just doesn’t know when that will be.

[styrmwb]

Rambling About Magic the Gathering X Final Fantasy - Final Fantasy VI (Part 2)

Back at it again with FFVI and its many, many cards. Speaking of a lot of cards;

Kefka, Court Mage/Kefka, Ruler of Ruin

Gee Kefka, how come Square and Wizards let you have 3 cards with 6 arts total? I get it though, he's one of the biggest characters from the whole series, and these are all amazing art pieces. One of my favorite parts is how Ruler of Ruin references both his classic quote in the alt, but ALSO the foreshadowing text of Forsaken in the main, that's such a good usage of the multiple cards. I also love that his effects are "each player" or "an opponent". He feels random and chaotic, unaimed, as he should.

Locke Cole

I'm a little sad he doesn't say Treasure Hunter, but at least he has his card in Commander to do that. The multiple effects makes me think of him using the Genji Glove or Main Gauche, a classic combo for Locke. Of course, he also has the steal effect that the thief in FFI had. Good card.

Terra, Magical Adept/Esper Terra

Seeing this makes me wonder if Terra and Kefka are Amano's favorite characters. I'm glad they got his art, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm a big fan of the explosion of power Trance Terra does at the end of her Saga period (which can I just say, Saga Summons are fucking PEAK), not to mention she gains flying which feels key.

Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital

This is definitely one of the best cities to pick from VI, maybe other than like, Narshe or Figaro. I know Overture is in reference to the Opera, but I don't understand why it mills the library. Maybe cause it's such a long scene? Or is it an auction house reference? Unsure, like, subscribe, and comment down below if you know.

Vector, Imperial Capital

Another one of those "effect first, theming later" land cards; the art and coloring is incredible AND fits with the actual coloring of the card, while still feeling like the game.

Mountain

For VI's generic land, we have Mt. Kolts! As Sabin is my favorite character, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cid, Timeless Artificer

THAT FUCKING CID THAT I HATE (he's the worst one don't @ me). A part of me likes how he looks like the original Amano art, but another part of me is a little disappointed we didn't get a different take on his appearance. Whatever, Marquez sucks and he dies to a fish. Obviously, Maduin is front and center, but I do see Unicorn and I think Carbuncle as well back there. Maybe also Phantom?

With 26 out of 309 cards, FFVI is rocking 8.4% of the set. Cid is Cid. The most we've seen so far. Other than a couple cards that I think either could have been attributed to a different game, or shouldn't have been made at all, I'm generally pretty happy with what's represented here. It also gets the Commander deck to fill out more spots, such as the very large party VI has.

However, if there's anything I'd add, it's Celes. I don't feel as though her Commander version really fits what I'd imagine, and if Terra, Locke, and Edgar (and fucking Gogo???) can get main set cards, the main protagonist of the 2nd half of the game should most certainly get something with Runic.

[terramythos]

Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

[achromant]

Achro's 2024 Orctober Masterpost

Below is the list of prompts that i used and some thoughts that went into the sketches. They generally follow the official list from instagram, but i made a few minor changes to it.

You can click on the prompts to hop over to their respective post to see the full pic.

Warrior

Went cyberpunk with this, cause i love simplified futuristic fashion.

Mage

Polar opposite of the warrior. Wanted to do something shapey and flowing. Loosely based on my Isabella concept.

Hunter

Really didnt want to draw some kind of archer, so i went the monster hunter route. People are super horny for this one, which was almost the intention.

Priest

Tried to avoid the catholic niche, so i went with modern hazard suits. I imagine there is a very hands-on department of the church that cleanses cursed areas, like a magical cleaning service.

Rogue

Honestly, i just went for the dark gold contrast. Love me some shiny.

Druid

Just didnt want to do a green druid. Luckily, it was time for orange, so it got this nice autmnal feeling. Wanted to do a werewolf initially, but i was in the mood for something a bit more chonky. Sometimes you just need a bit more fluff, yknow?

Pirate

Oh, ya-har-har. It's a pirate! Well, a dead one, at least. I forgot why i killed him, but he probably burned alive with his ship. idiot.

Alchemist

I named him Pickles. The 5 on his helmet connects to the Five of Chalices. In tarot, that card stands for loss and mourning. I imagine that Pickles tries to replace the blood in a body with wine to achieve eternal life. He is also an idiot.

Warlock

i made eight different version for this. Still hate it. He is probably the lost brother of Pickles, but got his eternal life from a deal with something more sinister. More intelligent than his brother, at least in theory.

Barbarian

Another one that took multiple attempts. Still havent decided whether he deserves pants. Might paints something a bit more spicy with him later though.

Shaman

This one is just high.

Paladin

The idea with the shield was that it looks somewhat normal from the front, but has this nice stained glass effect only visible to those behind the paladin. His story revolves around a lost lover he failed to protect, and now he's on a journey of vengenance and self-discovery.

Death Knight

Went a bit more demon than death, but oh well. Will defintetly use him as an enemy somewhere in the story.

Archer

Based this one on Lara Croft, obviously. Didn't want to give him a bow at first. Still don't think he deserves one.

Necromancer

Honestly, this is just the standard ugly little hunchback character, but people are very adamant that he's a character from Legend Of Zelda. He's not, he is obviously from the same universe as Hatsune Miku.

Demon Hunter

Colleague of the warrior. Probably the reason the priest needs to work overtime. Actually, no, he's warrior's boyfried now.

Bard

Oh, this one is a character i made a few years ago. He's the protagonist of a story i'm writing. The skull on the head of his instrument is that of his former teacher.

Monk

Needed another round boy. Not quite satisfied with this one, but the direction is nice.

Mercenary

Probably a friend of the warrior/demon hunter. Comic relief character. The Wanted poster he's holding up shows Moth.

Warlord

This one was supposed to be a bit more epic, but i made each of the orctober sketches in ~1h. Will probably revisit this to make it a proper painting.

Sorcerer

I know he looks like he has a tragic backstory, but he doesn't. He's very evil and should be locked away in some secure place. Preferably one that it fireproof.

Engineer

i forgot what my initial idea for this was, but i really like whatever i did here. His tattoo is of the "danger! explosion" sign, but in a heart. Slightly fucked up the writing though, accidentally mirrored it. Whoops.

Magical Girl

This one was supposed to be a "Cleric" as per the prompt list, but i already had a priest, so screw that. Wanted something super sweet and pink. The motif this outfit follows is the Weeping Heart flower. Also slight nod to Madoka Magica.

Scout

Didn't want to do the typical RPG style scout, so this one bakes cookies instead. He also has an axe, which has absolutely nothing to do with the cookies, i hope.

Beastmaster

This one was purple, so i really wanted to do somethine werewolf-y. I imagine him being the younger version of the barbarian, who will later learn that he shouldnt rely on the wolf alone, and better get a bigger axe.

Dragon Rider

So. This. I wanted to go for a biker dude, but went a bit too punk with it, and then just leaned into it. He is a biker at heart, but his dragon is the equivalent of a bicycle. Neither of them mind that though, theyre a very happy couple.

Assassin

This one needs a bit of explaining. I started with a himbo-type dude-bro (he had a "knife to meet ya"-shirt), to get a contrast to the rogue. And then the next thought was pretty much "what would be the most inefficient weapon for an stealthy assassin?", so he got a chainsaw. The rest of his design is a nod to Lolipop Chainsaw.

Witch Doctor

This one is 100% based on Baron Samedi, one of the main voodoo gods, which is why this character is half skeleton. The feathers are just for drama. I love feathers.

Sage

Oh, this one is just an old man. I'm pretty sure there was a reason i gave him a bunny hat, but dont ask me what that was.

Cyborg

Eyyy, throwback to the first of the month! Warrior got a bit of an upgrade. Only cost him an arm! Not much of a fan of fullblown cyborgs, so i went with the cyberpunk direction again, and left the traces of his upgrades at a minimum. Wonder if his boyfriend approves.

[malvenor]

finished reading cardcaptor sakura. wasnt really expecting to get invested in the romance of the series but lo and behold i was locked the fuck in for that four chapter epilogue about sakura resolving her personal feelings. i love her so much, ill probably read clear card at some point.

also clow reed is so funny. imagine getting so tired of being the strongest mage ever that you kill yourself for the express purpose of passing the buck to a ten year old girl. and then she turns out to be stronger than you in the end anyways.